Protoculture Effect
by Cyclone
Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Protoculture Effect (1/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Lieutenant Commander (LtCmdr) John Shepard, United Earth Spacy Special Operations Command and executive officer of the UES Normandy, strode through the corriders of his ship as he made his way to the bridge. He was clad in full CVR-5M body armor, wearing it like a second skin.

The familiar weight of the CVR-5M served as a comforting reassurance in recent weeks, ever since the turian came aboard. The Sentinels and the Citadel had been quietly staring each other down in a cold war ever since the Relay War decades ago, one which was only starting to thaw in the past few years due to the hard work of asari and invid diplomats. The entire Normandy project was shrouded in tension thick enough to cut with a knife. The fact that he was convinced he had seen **that** particular turian before - through the sights of his Defiant H-303 no less - only made Shepard even more wary. He twisted as the turian brushed past him on the way out of the forward helm area, barely avoiding contact.

He quietly listened to the speculation between the helmsman, Spacy Second Lieutenant (2Lt) Jeff Moreau, and the Marine detachment commander, First Lieutenant (1stLt) Kaidan Alenko, as they discussed their turian guest. A Spectre. That brought up all sorts of red flags, now that he seriously considered it. The Sentinels didn't believe in the Spectres, didn't believe that any individual could be trusted to be above the law without some sort of checks on his or her actions, so allowing one on board was an incredible show of good faith, by Shepard's estimation. More political points for the good guys, as far as he was concerned.

Still...

"Pipe down, both of you," he said, breaking up the discussion. "Are you officers or a couple of old hens?"

Joker turned his head, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "Ba-kawk!"

A smile cracked Shepard's face, and he shook his head, chuckling good-naturedly.

"Joker," Captain (Capt) Anderson's voice sounded over the cockpit comm, "status report!"

The helmsman updated the captain briefly - so far, everything was going just fine - finishing off with, "And Captain? Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way."

"He's already here, Lieutenant," Anderson replied dryly. "Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing."

"You get that, Commander?" Joker asked over his shoulder.

"I'm on my way," Shepard said, turning away. As he headed back, he nodded to the rest of the crew as he passed by them, pausing when the newest addition to the Marine detachment, Lance Corporal (LCpl) Richard L. Jenkins turned to greet him, interrupting his discussion with the ship's doc.

"What do you think, Commander?" he asked anxiously. "We won't be staying on Eden Prime too long, will we? I'm itching for some real action!"

_That's right,_ Shepard thought. _His first shipboard tour. No wonder he's so excited._ Not to mention, he recalled, Jenkins was from Eden Prime.

"I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal," Dr. Chakwas interjected. "Your 'real action' usually ends with me patching up crew members in the infirmary."

"Settle down, Jenkins," Shepard said. "Get excited like that, and you're liable to get killed before you fire a shot."

"Sorry, Commander," Jenkins said sheepishly. "I'm just so excited. I can't believe I'm going on a mission with a real Spectre."

Shepard couldn't help but shake his head and smile. He remembered Jenkins's rather romantic view of Spectres from earlier conversations with the eager young Marine, and he had to admit, there was a certain attractive mystique about a self-policing agency free of bureaucracy and paperwork, dedicated to the greater good, despite the potential problems.

"Well, I'm going to have to cut this short," he said. "The captain's waiting for me."

Shepard moved past and into the comm room. The captain was conspicuously absent, and he found himself alone with the turian Spectre.

"Commander Shepard," Nihlus said. "I was hoping you'd get here first. It will give us a chance to talk."

"The captain said he'd meet me here," Shepard said.

"He's on his way."

_Bullshit,_ Shepard thought. The captain had been talking to Joker not five minutes earlier and had been with the turian at the time.

"I'm interested in this world we're going to," Nihlus said as he began to stalk around the room. "Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful."

"Wouldn't know," Shepard shrugged. "Never been there."

The small talk was starting to annoy him - he couldn't escape the feeling that the turian was sizing him up - but he played along as they chatted about inconsequential things. The Spectre was a guest, after all.

"You know, we've met before," Nihlus commented, suddenly changing the topic. "You nearly took my head off on Revanna."

Shepard's face twisted into a scowl. Revanna had been the site of a proxy war between the Sentinels Alliance and the Citadel Council. A low intensity conflict, it was officially a settlers' dispute between two "independent" colonization groups, one human - Tirolian, to be exact - and one asari, with a pirate band thrown in for good measure. Shepard had been sent in as a "military advisor" for the Revanna militia when it became clear the "pirates" had more firepower than was reasonably available on the black market.

"I thought I recognized you," Shepard said guardedly.

"You impressed me, Shepard," Nihlus said. "Revanna was but a taste of your potential. On Elysium, you showed courage, tenacity, and exceptional skill."

_Elysium..._ Shepard thought. The turian was talking about the Skyllian Blitz seven years ago. Shepard had fought there; it was what had made his career. Outnumbered and outgunned, he had rallied the civilian population and held off the pirate coalition for three days until reinforcements arrived to beat them back. The Blitz - and incidents like what had happened to his own home colony of Mindoir - had led to the punitive expedition that culminated at Torfan.

"It's why I asked for you," Nihlus added.

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked warily.

"I think it's about time we told the commander what's going on," interjected a new voice, the captain's.

The two turned, and as Anderson and Nihlus laid the situation out before him, Shepard wondered what the hell he could have done to deserve this mess. _A Prothean beacon and an official turian stalker I nearly decapitated with my Defiant nine years ago,_ he thought morosely. _Wonderful._

That was when all hell broke loose.

The aborted transmission from Eden Prime was disconcerting, to say the least, but the strange starship, resembling nothing so much as a giant hand down from the sky, wreathed in red lightning, was downright terrifying. It tugged at something deep and primal.

It also seemed strangely familiar, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it...

_So much for a milk run,_ Shepard thought grimly.

* * *

Shepard performed a final systems check on his Cyclone. The VR-108 Typhoon was the latest generation Cyclone, more versatile than previous models, with multiple modular mountings and a hovercycle mode rather than the traditional wheeled motorcycle. Shepard was wearing his preferred configuration. The hip-mounts were each packed with a quartet of micro-missiles in GR-198 launchers, while the chest farings housed advanced sensors. The left arm mount was configured to amplify the range and power of the omni-tool he wore beneath it, while the right was equipped with the classic GR-97 twin tube micro-missile system in case he needed the heavy firepower. As usual, he left the shoulder mounts empty, as they were designed for heavy weapons, and the power draw tended to slow the Cyclone down. He kept his Defiant H-303 on a magnetic clip and hefted an EP-60 heavy particle beam rifle - too large for a human to wield unassisted - for his primary armament.

Beneath his helmet, he cocked an eyebrow at the unexpected arrival.

"Tali? What are you doing here?"

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was a civilian consultant assigned to engineering. The Sentinels had good relations with the Migrant Fleet, and many quarians preferred to complete their Pilgrimage in human territory or aboard human ships. Although they had been offered their pick of a number of planets in Sentinel territory, the majority of quarians had chosen to remain with the Fleet, still hoping to one day retake their homeworld.

"I brought her, Commander," Anderson interjected. "I believe she'll be an asset to your ground team."

"How, exactly?"

"The geth," Tali said. "My people created the geth, Commander. You need me."

"Geth?" Shepard repeated.

"We were able to ID them on the last pass," Anderson explained. "She volunteered."

"Understood, sir," Shepard nodded. He looked over at Tali. "Still... your environmental suit can't interface with a Cyclone. Without that added armor, you'll be vulnerable."

"I can take care of myself, Commander," Tali retorted, "and I have top of the line shields."

Shepard met the quarian's gaze, her eyes faint glowing slits visible through her tinted visor. He liked Tali, and he knew she had a good head on her shoulders and was a good shot with the mass accelerator shotgun she favored, but she was still a civilian.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "I've got you for cover, after all," she added playfully.

"All right," Shepard relented with a forced laugh. "Just stay behind us, okay?"

"No worries about that."

That didn't make Shepard feel any better.

It took a moment to sort out the order of battle. Nihlus was going to perform advanced reconnaissance, while Shepard's fire team provided the firepower. Tali also gave them a briefing on the most common geth they were likely to encounter: troopers, shock troopers, snipers, and rocket troopers.

He glanced at his team. Alenko had chosen a configuration similar to Shepard's, but he had gone for additional protoculture clips over the GR-198 launchers and had forgone the GR-97 for an proton cannon. Jenkins, on the other hand, had his Cyclone geared for heavy combat: GR-198 hip missile launchers, GR-103 chest missile launchers, GR-97 forearm twin tube missile launchers, and a powerful shoulder-mounted MAC-95 30mm mass accelerator cannon; he also carried a heavy particle beam rifle like Shepard's. Compared to the trio of Cycloners, Tali was practically naked in her armored environmental suit, though the mass accelerator shotgun she was packing looked comically out-sized for her; indeed, it looked more like something designed for a Cycloner to use, but he knew how skilled she was with it.

They landed in the marsh from a low-altitude drop. The Cyclones' mass effect fields cushioned the fall to a gentle step and kept them from sinking into the soft ground. Shepard lowered Tali to the ground. Her environmental suit didn't have the space or power source to pack the kind of equipment the Cyclones had, so Shepard had carried her down.

"Let's move out," Shepard said. "Jenkins, you've got point."

"Yes, sir," the Marine nodded. Since Jenkins was from Eden Prime, Shepard was banking on his familiarity with the colony.

After bypassing some of the strange "gas bag" creatures native to the planet, they soon made hard contact with the enemy.

"Son of a bitch!" Jenkins swore the geth recon drones hammered him. His right arm snapped up on instinct as he stumbled back in surprise. Over a century old, the GR-97 twin tube missile launcher was a tried and true weapon system. The Scorpion Mark IV plasma micro-missile was an evolution on the original Scorpion. It contained a powerful plasma warhead and was propelled by a mass effect field, with a rocket motor kicker, which accelerated the missile to kinetic-kill velocities; the plasma warhead was almost an afterthought against all but the most heavily-armored or shielded targets. Two such missiles streaked toward the geth recon drones, detonating on contact with their kinetic barriers and immolating the recon drones.

"You all right, Jenkins?" Shepard asked as the rest of the team hurried to join him. Shepard strafed the last recon drone with his heavy particle beam rifle until it went crashing to the ground. Particle beams were officially classified as directed energy weapons, but that identifier wasn't quite accurate. The beams had mass, so kinetic barriers did affect them, but the energetic state of the beams meant kinetic barriers - the only kind of shield practical on an infantry scale - were very quickly whittled down.

"Yes, sir," Jenkins said, panting from the adrenaline rush. "Damn things ripped right through my shields."

"Eyes sharp, people," Shepard ordered. "Tali, stay close."

"Yes, Commander."

Moving cautiously, the team moved up the hill and into a small grove of trees.

"Sir?" Jenkins spoke up quietly, breaking the silence. "I, uh, I'm sorry."

"For what, Corporal?"

"Wasting those missiles, sir. I... kinda panicked. Won't happen again."

Shepard snorted. "Of course it'll happen again, Jenkins. Everyone panics, and frankly, I'd rather waste a couple of expensive missiles than lose a man under my command, understood?"

"Yes, sir."

* * *

**Codex Entry: CVR-5 Body Armor**

CVR-5 body armor is the latest in the CVR series of Cyclone Veritech Ride interface armor. An evolution of its predecessors, it combines the essential survival tools of modern combat with the crucial Cyclone connection points into a single surprisingly comfortable and lightweight package. It features an environmental seal that can be manually engaged for EVA or would automatically engage if its integral sensors detected sudden depressurization.

It is issued with a standard holster for the Defiant H-303 modular weapon system and a kinetic barrier generator, both mounted to the belt. Its hard armor plating can stop most small arms fire, whether projectiles or directed energy. The CVR-5 comes in two varieties, CVR-5M for male personnel and CVR-5F for female personnel.

* * *

**Codex: Defiant H-303 Modular Weapon System**

The standard sidearm of the United Earth Defense Force, the Defiant H-303 MWS is a versatile, handheld particle beam weapon system that can be reconfigured for multiple purposes. The triangular-shaped base unit is a select-fire particle beam pistol powered by a protoculture micro-cell in the forward handguard. An optional rifle stock can accommodate a larger protoculture flat cell for increased power. A forward pistol grip can also be added immediately below and behind the muzzle (right where a barrel extension would attach) for added stability during automatic fire.

For longer ranged targets, barrel extensions of various lengths may be added, providing magnetic focusing to increase its effective range and accuracy, and it can also accommodate a variety of scopes. Also available is a wide-dispersal muzzle adapter, which attaches much like a magnetic focusing barrel extension, but in principle does the opposite, scattering the particle beam. This muzzle adapter is used primarily for close quarters combat due to the reduction in range caused by the induced dispersal of the particle beam.

* * *

**Codex: VR-108 Typhoon Cyclone**

Developed after the Relay War, the VR-108 Typhoon was designed to take advantage of the new technology reverse-engineered from captured turian equipment. This newest model of infantry Cyclone fielded by the United Earth Defense Force is the first Cyclone with a hovercycle configuration to reach general production. Powered by two standard protoculture cells instead of the one used by previous Cyclone models, it has more available power to it and boasts a total of eight modular hardpoints: two in the chest farings, one on each forearm, one on each hip, and two over the shoulders.

The shoulder mounts are not used by most personnel, as they are more vulnerable to incoming fire, but they serve as the only practical location for some of the heavy weapons fielded by the UEDF. Additionally, using all eight modular hardpoints can cause a strain on the Typhoon's power systems, reducing its overall performance, which combines with the shoulder mounts' vulnerable location to make them the first hardpoints to be left empty.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

I honestly don't know what I hope to accomplish with this 'fic. I have some ideas on how the histories fit together, but where to go forward is a little more difficult.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Protoculture Effect (2/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Come on!" UEMC Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt) Ashley Williams called, riding low over her Cyclone. She hated running. It just wasn't in her blood. Her parents both served the Spacy, and her grandfather had held Shanxi against the turians for two long, bloody years, then took it back after another year. But she wasn't an idiot. There were just too many of them, and three...

BOOM!

...make that two Cycloners, one of them a corpsman, didn't stand a chance in a straight fight, not against a dozen rocket-toting killer robots.

They were headed for a hill just outside the colony proper, atop which was a grove of trees. Hopefully, they'd be able to regroup, lose them in the trees, maybe get the drop on these alien tin cans.

_And this was supposed to be an easy rotation,_ she thought sourly, _a **break** from all the damned pirate-hunting._

Torfan still haunted her. It had been a major boon to her career, but her determination - obsession, perhaps - to complete the mission - to make sure not one single slaver made it off that rock alive - had cost a lot of good people their lives, especially after she had been forced to take command of her unit when her immediate CO had been killed. She wasn't an officer, but she had been forced to act as one, and she had made mistakes. Though she regretted the costs, losing a good three quarters of her unit, she still stood by her decision to press the assault. Had she waited for reinforcements or further orders from Major Kyle, the batarians would have been able to fortify their positions, and that would have cost the UEDF more lives in the end. Or so she tried to convince herself.

Ashley slowed her Cyclone as she reached the bottom of the hill. The corpsman's Cyclone edged out ahead of her as she twisted in her seat, Defiant in hand, snapping off a few shots before hitting the accelerator again. Her gaze went to the top of the hill, and her heart leaped as she saw the Cycloners emerge from the trees.

* * *

"Jenkins," Shepard ordered, "take 'em out!"

"Wait!" Tali called out. "Target the red ones first!"

"Commander?"

Shepard shrugged. "You heard the lady."

Jenkins nodded and brought up his MAC-95 30mm mass accelerator cannon. The first shot streaked out in what resembled a short-lived white beam as the tungsten penetrator, super-heated from friction with the atmosphere, struck one of the red geth platforms in the chest, punching through its shields and armor with ease... then out the back into the one behind it, dropping both geth. Automatic cooling shutters on the weapon opened, venting the overheated weapon as Jenkins and Shepard each raised their particle rifles, while Kaidan brought up his proton cannon.

By his fifth kill, Jenkins had gotten into a rhythm, using his particle rifle to tear down the geths' shields, followed up by a single micro-missile to crack the armor beneath. One last geth straggler emerged from the dust of the withering fire far closer than any of them had expected...

BOOM!

...and was hurled back by the massive impact that shattered its armor.

Tali racked her mass accelerator shotgun. "You missed one."

The ground team approached the two Cycloners they had just rescued. Both were women, olive-skinned. The one on the right stepped forward and saluted Shepard, her companion following suit a moment later.

"Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams, sir."

"Corpsman Apprentice First Class Nirali Bhatia, sir."

"We're with the Two-Twelve," Ashley added.

Shepard looked around. "Where's the rest of your unit?"

"You're looking at it, sir," Ashley said bitterly. "Those tin cans are tougher than they look, and they're swarming us like crazy. We lost contact with the Two-Thirty-Two and tried to double-back to the dig site, but..." She shook her head and held up her Defiant. "P-cell's run dry twice already putting them down, and we don't have any heavier weaponry."

Shepard nodded grimly, then noted Tali peering over one of the geth bodies.

"Tali?"

The quarian machinist looked up and shook her head slowly. "These aren't standard geth platforms. No troopers, no shock troopers; only destroyers and juggernauts, a couple of rocket troopers... they came in heavy, Commander. Very heavy. They're armed for anti-vehicular combat."

That did not sit well with Shepard. Or anyone else, for that matter. "You mean they're armed to take on Cyclones," he said flatly.

Tali nodded reluctantly. "Very likely."

"But the geth haven't been seen outside the Perseus Veil for nearly two hundred years," Kaidan pointed out. "How would they know about Cyclones?"

That **really** didn't sit well with anyone.

Shepard took a moment to size up the two women. The gunny seemed pretty stable, and her name sounded vaguely familiar, while the corpsman was clearly anxious, looking to the gunny for reassurance. Their Cyclones were the older VR-099 Tornado models: faster and lighter than the VR-108 Typhoon, but less heavily armored and with fewer modular mounts; it also had a more traditional wheeled motorcycle mode. It looked like the gunny's Cyclone had the typical patrol configuration - proton cannon and omni-tool on the arms, spare ammo on the hips - while the corpsman had the expected medigel dispensers on the hips and diagnostic medical scanner and surgical tools on the forearms. Both were, of course, armed with Defiants.

"All right, you're with us, Gunny. Corpsman, fall in towards the rear. We need to secure that Prothean beacon ASAP."

The two women nodded, straddled their Cyclones, and initiated the mechamorphosis into battloid mode, falling in as ordered. As the now larger team advanced into the colony, the corpsman, Nirali Bhatia, spoke quietly to the quarian. "So, what was that you did with your shotgun?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"That - geth destroyer you called it? - that geth destroyer you shot," Nirali elaborated. "That wasn't a standard shotgun blast. Believe me, I've seen what shotguns do to people."

"It's..." Tali hesitated. "I overrode the safety governor in the shotgun's mass accelerator. Overheats it almost instantly and increases wear, but the carnage it can cause... well, you saw for yourself."

"By all that is holy... why would you do something like that?" Nirali sputtered. As a hospital corpsman, she was familiar with the kind of damage mass accelerators, particle beams, plasma, lasers, blades, blunt force trauma, explosives, and whatnot could do to people, through her training if nothing else. If it hadn't been for the Deferred Education Plan, she would never have enlisted, and medical corps training just made the thought of finding new and interesting ways to kill people even more horrifying. After the past few hours, that restaurant she hoped to open with Samesh seemed farther away than ever.

"Because sometimes," Tali replied quietly, "you need the extra firepower."

"The dig site's just up ahead," Ashley said. She paused and ducked as a mass accelerator slug slammed into her shields. "Damn it!" she swore, returning fire, but the geth sniper was crouched behind a rocky outcropping.

Jenkins hefted his 30mm and fired. The round cored through the boulder and the geth behind it.

"I don't suppose you have another of those somewhere," Ashley asked enviously.

"Sorry," Jenkins deadpanned. "Left it in my other suit."

The geth remaining at the dig site proved to be geth shock troopers, easy kills for a squad of Cycloners.

"The beacon's gone," Ashley frowned behind her helmet.

"They probably moved it to the spaceport, Gunny," Nirali said. "We were expecting a ship today to pick up the beacon."

"That would be us," Shepard said, nodding. "Let's keep moving. We still need to secure that beacon."

"So where's your ship?" Ashley asked.

"Normandy's a frigate," Shepard said, then pointed at the dreadnought looming ominously above them. "She wouldn't stand a chance against whatever **that** is."

"Oh, that's just lovely," Ashley muttered. "Just one frigate? We're **screwed**."

As they continued upwards to the dig's main campsite, marked by a handful of prefab buildings, Shepard heard Nihlus over the radio: "Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead, just past the monorail station. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

"Copy that," Shepard replied. His particle rifle came up, and he snapped off a shot, decapitating one of the geth troopers manhandling a trio of humans over an alien device. The geth turned, flashlight heads peering at them as the devices suddenly activated, impaling the humans.

A fraction of a second later, the team, which had been holding fire for fear of hitting the humans, shredded the geth mercilessly.

"Looks like they sent all their heavy hitters after the garrison once they secured the camp," Jenkins observed. "These look like the standard geth troopers you briefed us on, ma'am."

"Agreed," the quarian said, nodding. "And please, just call me Tali."

"Yes, ma'am. Err, Tali. Ma'am."

Shepard chuckled. "Calm down, Jenkins. Miss Zorah tends to have that effect on people."

Tali's eyes narrowed as she glared at the commander. "I have a shotgun."

"You let all your subordinates threaten you, Commander?"

"She's not my subordinate, Gunny," Shepard pointed out. "She's a civilian consultant. I brought her along on captain's orders as she's the only geth expert we had on board."

"So? She just **threatened** to-"

"I'm not deaf, Gunnery Sergeant, nor am I stupid," Shepard growled. He looked up at the impaled colonists. "We'll leave them for to recovery teams. "He nodded to one of the prefab buildings that seemed intact and, more importantly, sealed. "Kaidan, see if you can get that thing open, check for survivors."

"On it, Commander," Kaidan said, bringing up his omni-tool and interfacing with the locking mechanism. It only took him a few minutes to bypass the lock and slide the door open, only to get assaulted by a folded metal chair, which clanged on the top of his helmet.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the woman said, stepping back in surprise. "I thought-"

"You thought we were geth," Kaidan interrupted, putting a hand to his helmet as he struggled to keep his balance and shook his head to try to clear out the ringing in his ears. The migraines from his L2 implants were bad enough. This was going to ruin his whole week.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the UES Normandy. Are you okay?"

The surviving members of the research team, it seemed, were fine, if a little shaken up, but Shepard had Nirali check them over anyway, just in case. None of them had any serious injuries, but they couldn't identify the strange artifacts the geth had used to impale the colonists.

"Go," Dr. Warren - the woman who had brained Kaidan - said. "We'll be fine here. It's imperative you get that beacon. We can lock ourselves in again until it's clear."

"Here," Ashley said, standing up from where she had been crouched by the body of one of her fellow Marines. She had been quietly moving from body to body, collecting dog tags. She walked over and handed a Defiant to the xenoarchaeologist, who accepted it warily. "Just in case," she said with a shrug.

"Let's get moving," Shepard said, and the team moved on into the colony proper.

The colony was about what Shepard expected, prefab boxes lined up in neat little rows. It wasn't much different from his memories of Mindoir - a chill ran down his spine - right down to the devastation. This wasn't the main colony, just an expansion that had been laid down in anticipation of the new extension of the monorail line, so there were no people here. It was eerily quiet, the silence broken only by a single gunshot ringing out in the distance.

"Double time!" Shepard snapped, dropping his Cyclone into hovercycle mode. "Tali, hop on!"

The quarian straddled his hovercycle and wrapped her arms around his waist just as he kicked the accelerator. Soon, they were zooming through the colony at better than eighty kilometers an hour, swerving to a halt as they reached the monorail station and came under fire. Switching back to battloid mode, they dispatched the geth troopers and approached.

"Commander," Kaidan said, kneeling by the turian body the geth troopers had been carrying. "It's Nihlus."

"Something's moving!" Ashley called. "Behind the crates!" Everyone turned and leveled their weapons.

"Wait!" a voice called out. "Don't... don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!"

"What are you doing sneaking around back there?" Shepard demanded.

"I... I'm sorry," the man said, holding his hands up. "I was hiding. From those creatures. My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."

It didn't take long to get the story from Powell, who had managed to witness everything and avoid notice behind the crates by virtue of having been taking a nap when the attack occurred. The other turian, the one Nihlus had called Saren, had shown up first, shot Nihlus in the back when he let his guard down, then ordered the geth to clean up. The beacon had been taken by monorail to the spaceport, and Saren had gone after it. After a moment, the civilian threw his hands off and walked away, clearly shaken by the ordeal.

Shepard watched him leave the area, then turned to find Tali crouched over one of the geth they had shot up.

"What is it, Tali?"

"Shh!" she shushed. "I'm trying to concentrate." After a moment, she gave a victorious squeal and stood up, holding up her prize. "Geth memory core," she explained. "We took it down fast enough to keep it from self-destructing, and with the right equipment, we can recover some of the data, hopefully enough to identify this 'Saren.'"

"Good thinking," Shepard said, nodding with approval.

They hadn't been paying much attention to the spikes around them, simply trying to ignore the bodies impaled on them, so it caught them by surprise as the spikes suddenly retracted, and the bodies picked themselves.

"What the hell!" Jenkins cried out as the nearest of them unleashed a wave of electrical energy. "Shit! Shields are down, targeting systems scrambled!" He backed away as the... husk, for lack of a better word, clawed at him. He smacked it back, the enhanced strength of his Cyclone sending its head flying.

For all their shock value, the husks were easily disposed of. Shepard shook his head. "Great. Robo-zombies. I guess now we know what the impaling's all about it. Let's get moving."

They fought their way to the cargo train, a relatively simple task, as there was only a token force of geth troopers and shock troopers present, and took the cargo train to the spaceport... where they practically tripped over a nuke.

"Tali," Shepard snapped, "take care of the nukes. We'll cover you."

"Are you sure we should trust her with that, Commander?" Ashley asked on a private channel.

"No time to argue, Gunny," Shepard said, bringing his particle rifle up and blasting the recon drones that flew in to harass them.

"But, sir-"

"What part of 'no time to argue' did you miss, Gunny? This is not up for debate. She's our best tech expert and has top level clearance with the Spacy."

"Understood, sir," she ground out.

They cleared the first area well enough, as aside from the recon drones, there had been only a handful of shock troopers there to stop them. As they advanced past the last nuke, they were forced to dive for cover as rockets streaked toward them.

"Keelah!" Tali swore. "I see four juggernauts and a geth prime."

"What the hell's a geth prime?"

Before she could answer, one of the rockets blew apart the stack of alloyed boxes Shepard was using for cover, sending him flying, and a second one slammed into his kinetic barrier, dropping his shields as it detonated and sending him flying even further. A quick application of his Cyclone's thrusters saved him from a very long fall into the ravine that split the spaceport's cargo area in two.

"Heavy command unit," Tali explained once Shepard was behind more solid cover. "Tougher than a juggernaut, smarter, more heavily armed, and it can network and improve the runtimes on nearby geth."

"It's the big white one, right?" Jenkins asked.

"Yes."

The corporal leaned out, bringing his MAC-95 up, and fired at the geth prime. The tungsten penetrator sped past two of the juggernauts, smashing their kinetic barriers down, then slammed into the geth prime's shields. He ducked again as one of the other juggernauts snap-fired a rocket at him with deadly accuracy.

"God damn it!" he swore. "Switching to Scorpions."

"Sync your targeting with mine," Shepard ordered. He had two Scorpion Mark IV micro-missiles of his own, and now looked like a better time than any to put them to good use.

Four micro-missiles streaked out toward the clustered geth. When the dust cleared, the juggernauts whose barriers Jenkins had disabled lay slagged on the ground, while the geth prime looked distinctly worse for wear. Kaidan chose that moment to sidearm a tech mine at the geth. The overload tech mine fried the two remaining juggernauts, and the prime staggered back.

"Pour it on!" Ashley roared, matching actions to words as she alternated between the proton cannon mounted on her Cyclone's right forearm mount and the Defiant she held in her left hand. The rest of the team quickly joined in, and the geth prime soon fell under the withering barrage.

A thunderous silence descended on the spaceport. After a moment to give the team time to catch their breaths, Shepard looked around. "All right. Let's go find that beacon."

They found the beacon, all right. And it appeared to be active.

"My God..." Kaidan murmured.

"It wasn't doing anything like this when they found it," Ashley murmured, her voice hushed.

"Well, whatever happened here, I think it's over," Shepard said, shaking his head. "Jenkins, Williams, stand watch. Alenko, scan the area, make sure we got all the nukes. Bhatia..."

"You're injured, Commander," Nirali cut him off. "I saw you take a rocket to the chest. Get out of that armor so I can check on you properly."

Shepard opened his mouth to protest, then decided against it, simply switching to hovercycle mode and pulling off his helmet.

_Thank God for medi-gel,_ he thought wryly. He was sitting side-saddle on his Cyclone and giving his preliminary report to Captain Anderson even as the corpsman patched him up. His gaze swept across the area, and he broke off when he saw Tali step towards the beacon, apparently mesmerized.

When the energy lanced out and engulfed the quarian, lifting her up into the air, he bolted forward. "Tali!" he called, tackling her. He wrapped his arms around her and twisted, hurling her free of the energy field, only to have it capture him. His mind was assaulted, bombarded with images and emotions.

Fear. Pain. Blood. Death.

Then darkness claimed him.

* * *

**Codex: MAC-95 Mass Accelerator Cannon**

Designed for anti-armor use, the MAC-95 mass accelerator cannon is one of the most powerful infantry weapons fielded by the UEDF, combining mass effect technology with conventional railgun design. The cannon uses a mass effect field to reduce the effective mass of the sabot round within the barrel and an electromagnetic field to propel it to tremendous velocities. The ferrous sabot jacket falls away almost instantly, releasing a tungsten penetrator dart which, due to friction with atmosphere, quickly becomes white-hot. The velocities involved allow the semi-molten penetrator to overcome light vehicle class kinetic barriers or pierce all but the toughest vehicle armor.

* * *

**Codex: VR-099 Tornado Cyclone**

A rugged, enduring design, the VR-099 Tornado has served as the UEDF's stalwart workhorse for more than sixty years. Based primarily on the VR-050 series Cyclones, the Tornado is a multipurpose veritech motorcycle with four modular hardpoints: one on each forearm and one on each hip. The Tornado's rugged design has earned it a reputation for reliability, and it still serves at smaller garrisons and in reserve armories to this day.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Obviously, things are different, with both Richard L. Jenkins and Nirali Bhatia surviving, but beyond that, the ramifications of this are pretty uncertain at this point. And yes, I did make Ashley into a Spacer/Ruthless to complement Shepard's Colonist/War Hero background.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Protoculture Effect (3/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

John Shepard groaned as he mentally clawed his way to consciousness.

_Where the hell am I?_ he wondered, staring at the flourescent lights above him. He sat up and nearly fell over from the sudden migraine; it felt like someone had driven a spike into his skull. Or several.

"Commander, you're awake."

_That's Dr. Chakwas._

"How do you feel?"

"Like the morning after shore leave," he muttered, rubbing his temples as he went through one of his family's meditative breathing exercises to control the pounding in his head. He looked around, and it took him a moment to recognize the Normandy's sickbay. "What happened?"

"You played big damn hero and saved Tali from the beacon. Sir," Hospital Corpsman Apprentice First Class (HA1c) Bhatia said from several beds over, where she was working on someone else.

The "someone else," it turned out, was Tali, who sat up, pushing her way past the corpsman, and said, "I'm sorry, Commander. It's all my fault. I must have triggered some sort of defense mechanism. I should have been more careful."

"Tali," Shepard said reassuringly, "you couldn't have known what would happen."

"We don't even know if Miss Zorah's presence is what triggered it," Dr. Chakwas said, "and we may never know."

"What do you mean, Doc?"

"The beacon shattered after it released you," she answered.

_Joy,_ Shepard thought with no small amount of sarcasm. This was going to make for a really fun debrief.

And he was right. It seemed the beacon had left no lasting effect on Tali, something she was in medical with him to confirm, and the captain soon shooed them out for the debrief.

"I won't lie to you, Shepard," Anderson said after his report. "Things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon was destroyed, and geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers."

"With all due respect, sir, the Council can kiss my ass," was Shepard's rather surly reply. "Someone told the geth what to expect - I'm betting it's that turian who killed Nihlus - and I'm not entirely convinced the Council wasn't involved."

"That's dangerous talk, Shepard; don't let the politicos hear you say that," the captain warned, "and for your information, I think the Council's diplomatic efforts are genuine. What worries me more is that turian, Saren."

Shepard frowned. "You know him, sir?"

"If it's the same Saren," Anderson said. "He fits Mister Powell's description, and Saren's not that common a turian name."

"Who is he?"

"He's a Spectre. And he **hates** humans."

"Wonderful," Shepard groaned.

"We're just about to make the relay jump to Arcturus," Anderson said. "Admiral Hackett wants a full report when we reach Space Station Freedom. He'll be joining us when we report to the Council."

"Understood, sir."

Anderson was about to leave, when he paused at the door and turned. "One last thing, Commander, what did you see?"

"Sir?"

"The beacon's a Prothean communication device, as far as we can tell, and Doctor Chakwas mentioned your EEG registered intense dreaming," Anderson said. "Whatever else his intentions were, Saren wanted that beacon. What did you see?"

Shepard blinked. "It... wasn't very clear, sir. Some sort of... warning, I think. Blood, fear, death. Synthetics... slaughtering people. I... don't think it was the geth, sir."

"Haydonites?"

"Maybe," Shepard said, unconvinced.

"I'll want that in your report to the admiral as well."

"What?" Shepard snorted. "That I had a bad dream?"

"We don't know how those beacons work, Commander. Bad dream or not, that data could prove invaluable once we decipher it. Understood, Commander?"

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"So, Tali," Shepard said, leaning against the railing overlooking the Normandy's Tantalus core, "how are you feeling? Any side effects from that beacon?"

"I should be asking you that, Commander."

"Fair point," Shepard said, tilting his head in acknowledgement. "How's the recovery of that geth memory core coming along?"

"Slowly," she admitted. "There are some additional programs and facilities I'll need to procure once we get to the Citadel. Give me a day or two, and it should be ready."

"Tell me what you need, and we'll get it," he assured her.

The quarian chuckled. "Careful, Commander. A girl could get the wrong idea." She waved off his offer. "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. You'd just get in the way."

"All right, all right," he laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. "I can take a hint. You're a big girl. You can take care of yourself."

"Thank you so much for noticing," she deadpanned. "Now, if you'll excuse me? I need to finish these calibrations by seventeen-hundred or Chief Engineer K'Dar will have my head."

Shepard nodded and backed away, hands up in mock surrender, then turned away, shaking his head. LtCmdr K'Dar was Karbarran and the Normandy's chief engineer (CHENG), and the ursinoid had a reputation for hardheadedness and exacting perfectionism. In short, he was the ideal chief engineer a commanding officer could hope for, especially for an experimental ship like the Normandy. For those under him, though, it was a much less pleasant experience.

The commander made his way one level down to the armory, one level down from engineering. It was part of his ritual to check in on the crew periodically. The main armory shared a deck with the Cyclone bays, and the mecha hangar and main cargo bay was one level below that.

He found GySgt Williams in the armory, working on a disassembled Defiant. Captain Anderson had had her and HA1c Bhatia transferred to the Normandy. "How you holding up, Gunny?" he asked gently after a little small talk.

"I'm fine, sir," she said stiffly.

"This isn't like Torfan," he reminded her gently.

"I know that, sir," she said, barely holding back a snarl. "I stand by my decisions at Torfan, as did the inquiry board. It's Saren and those geth I'm pissed at, sir."

"Good. Just don't let it eat you up inside. If you do-"

"Respectfully, sir, shove it," she snapped, bristling. "I dealt with Torfan. I can deal with Eden Prime."

Shepard raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.

She sighed. "Sorry, sir. It's just... I'm a little on edge right now. I'll be fine, sir."

"That's also understandable. Finish looking over your rig and take some downtime."

"Sir, I'm-"

"Do I have to make that an order, Gunny?"

"No, sir. Sorry, sir. Thank you, sir."

Shepard didn't miss the bite in her voice, but that was fine with him. The last thing he needed was to see a good Marine self-destruct over a string of lousy luck. And the last thing **she** needed was a commanding officer who decided she was some sort of jinx, something the captain was likely hoping to avoid. More than one promising NCO's career had been ruined by bad commanding officers.

So he let the near insubordination slide and headed off to the Cyclone bay, where he found Jenkins elbows deep in the guts of one of the spare Typhoons.

"Jenkins," he said.

The corporal jerked in surprise, standing up and salute, smearing grease into his hair. "Sir!"

"At ease," Shepard said, waving it off. "You know, we have deck apes for that kind of thing, right?"

"Ah, yessir, I know, but... I wanted to make sure this one was in tip-top shape."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow as he looked over the Cyclone. "Isn't that the Cyclone we assigned to Gunny Williams?"

"Uh, yes, sir, I believe it is, sir," Jenkins said, looking away evasively.

_I know that look,_ Shepard thought, fighting a smirk. Still, it seemed to be helping him deal with the attack on his home colony. "Once you get this back together, Corporal, take the rest of the day off."

Jenkins was about to object when Shepard glared at him. "Ah, yes, sir."

Shepard nodded and headed back to the deck access ladder. There were three ways to get between decks on a UES ship: ladders, stairs, and elevators. The few elevators on board were dual-use cargo lifts, slow as molasses, and on a frigate like the Normandy, stairwells were few and far between.

He dropped down off the ladder and turned to check up on Midnight. Midnight was a VF-23 Sif veritech fighter, and she had served him faithfully all the way back to his time with the 7th Armored Tactical Assault Corps. Closing his eyes, he reached up and ran his hand across his rank and name stenciled into the side of the fighter, right below the canopy. Pilots had long since abandoned the callsign tradition - it had made it easier to deal with the casualties at the turn of the millenium - but they still named their fighters. If there was one thing that made him wonder if transferring to Special Operations Command was the right decision, it was Midnight. He didn't get near as many chances to fly her now as he did with the 7th.

"Commander."

"How's the old lady doing, Senior Chief?"

"She'd be doing better if she were flying."

"Don't I know it," Shepard sighed. "We're picking up Admiral Hackett at Freedom, then it's straight to the Citadel. I don't think I'll be getting a chance to take her out for a while."

"Pity," Senior Chief Bio-Maintenance Engineer (SCBME) Allison Marks said, the slender blonde stepping past him and stroking the fighter's nose. "She's a beauty. You always took good care of her, sir. Still, we just recieved the new Block Twenty upgrade kits, so I guess that'll give me time to get her up to date."

"Let me know when you're done with that. I'll take her out, put her through her paces."

She smiled. "You got it, Commander."

* * *

"Admiral on deck!"

"As you were," Fleet Admiral (FAdm) Steven Hackett said as walked onto the Normandy's bridge. It was the first time he had been aboard the Normandy since she become fully operational, and so far, all he was certain of was that it it was... different from a standard Spacy ship. Then again, this **was** a joint project, and they **were** experimenting with integrating turian designs, as reflected by the bridge layout, which put the captain closer to the rear than standard Spacy designs. On a standard Spacy bridge, the navigator was behind the captain, but here, the captain had direct access to navigation.

"This is a fine ship you have here, Captain."

"Thank you, sir," Anderson replied. "Will you be moving your flag to the Sinclair, sir?"

The UES Sinclair was a Fokker-class carrier. Carriers were an oddity by Citadel standards, something they were unfamiliar with before meeting the Sentinel Alliance. The Citadel species only used fighters in small numbers as a supplement to their main mass accelerators, while they had served as the centerpiece of the United Earth Spacy for over a hundred years, with only supplemental cannon armament. The Treaty of Farixen restricted the relative number of dreadnoughts between the various Citadel species, and humanity had had to sign it in order to get an embassy on the Citadel, but fortunately, the wording of the treaty didn't apply to carriers.

"No, David," Hackett said, shaking his head. "The Normandy will do just fine."

"We don't have a flag bridge," Anderson reminded him. "The Normandy's just a frigate."

"I'm aware of that, Captain, but given the circumstances, I think it's best we remind the Turian Heirarchy who actually owns this ship."

"Understood, sir."

* * *

C-Sec Traffic Control was a hectic job. The Citadel was more than just the seat of government; it was a major trade hub. With all the ships that moved in and out and around the Citadel, the traffic controllers were kept extremely busy. Rumors suggested that some had been overworked to the point that they had to resort to stims to stay awake.

"Sir, I've got a major mass effect distortion. Unscheduled, and it's nowhere near the relay."

"Damn humans," the supervisor snarled. "It's probably another super-convoy someone 'forgot' to file folding in." The space fold technology the humans used for faster-than-light travel caused gravitational distortions that were easily mistaken for mass effect fields.

"I... don't think so, sir," the traffic controller said, shaking his head slowly. "The signature's all wrong, and..." His mandibles flared as the fold finished. "By the spirits! That's a damned fleet! Reading two dreadnoughts, fifteen... no, sixteen cruisers, over thirty frigates and counting!"

The supervisor stared, his mandibles working silently for a moment before his fist slammed into the emergency alarm, sending the Citadel into lockdown.

"UES Normandy to Citadel Control, Fleet Admiral Hackett speaking. Sorry for the short notice, but I have urgent business with the Council."

* * *

"Your arrival was... unexpected," Councilor Tevos said, displaying her mastery of understatement. "Was it strictly necessary to arrive with such an... impressive display?"

"Given recent events," Hackett said, "I felt it wise to... impress upon you certain facts that may have been forgotten since the Relay War."

"Yes," the salarian councilor nodded, "the attack on Eden Prime. The emergence of the geth is quite disturbing."

"Frankly, it's not the geth we're worried about."

* * *

**Codex: Stations: Space Station Freedom**

Located in the Arcturus system, Space Station Freedom is a Liberty-class space station and one of the Sentinels Alliance's most important military strongholds. Arcturus is a nexus point, home to several mass relays, including the Charon relay's counterpart, and therefore serves as a strategic chokepoint against non-fold-capable powers. Originally located in Theta Sector, Space Station Freedom was folded to Arcturus in 2151, and it served as the forward supply base from which Admiral Kastanie Drescher prosecuted the Relay War against the Turian Hierarchy.

* * *

**Codex: VF-23 Sif Veritech Fighter**

The VF-23 Sif veritech fighter is the current multirole fighter fielded by the United Earth Defense Force and, with the VF/B-26 Thor veritech fighter bomber, forms the basis of the UEDF's fighter doctrine. Built like a conventional veritech fighter, its acceleration and maneuverability have been improved through the computer-controlled application of a mass effect field generator, bringing unprecedented agility to the veritech as well as providing it with kinetic barriers for defense. It features a virtual cockpit interface that provides the pilot with an unobstructed 360-degree view of his fighter's surroundings and a thought control interface reverse-engineered and adapted from the Robotech Master bioroids of the Second Robotech War.

The Sif's primary internal armament consists of eight internal missile bays of varying payloads, with a total payload of sixty-eight Piranha multipurpose missiles. As a backup weapon, the Sif also mounts a pair of high-powered laser cannons in the nose in fighter and guardian modes and in the chest in battloid mode. Additionally, the Sif has a total of seven hardpoints: a centerline hardpoint for a gun pod, two more conformal hardpoints in the fuselage, and two hardpoints on each wing.

The Sif is typically armed with either an EU-33 tri-barrel particle beam gun pod or a GU-35 105mm single-barreled smoothbore mass accelerator gun pod, handheld in battloid and guardian modes and mounted to the centerline hardpoint in fighter mode. The other two fuselage hardpoints - mounted below the wing roots in fighter and guardian mode and on the lower torso in battloid mode - are smaller and typically mounted with either GU-25 25mm mass accelerator rotary autocannons or micro-missile pods. The wing hardpoints can also mount a variety of ordnance, but typical loadouts consist of a mix of remote cannons (such as the GU-25 or the EU-32 pulse laser) and triple-ejection racks of Switchblade air-to-air missiles, but each hardpoint can also mount a single anti-ship reflex missile if needed.

The Sif also has attachment points for additional external armor packs. Such armor packs serve as force multipliers and mission-specific enhancements, sacrificing acceleration and maneuverability in exchange for additional armor and firepower or specialized equipment.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Obviously, a rather... different approach to meeting the Council. Oh, and for your information here's the first line of the next chapter:

"Do the words 'political shitstorm' mean anything to you?"

And no, that's not Udina.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Protoculture Effect (4/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Do the words 'political shitstorm' mean anything to you?"

Saren bit back a growl as he glared at the hologram.

"What the hell were you even doing on Eden Prime, Saren?" the turian councilor demanded, his mandibles lashing angrily.

"I don't know what the humans have told you, Councilor," Saren hissed, "but I was nowhere near Eden Prime."

"They said you would say that," the councilor said, shaking his head. Jabbing a talon toward the Spectre, he said, "You'd better be telling the truth, Saren. Apparently, their pet quarian's coming up with some evidence."

"Has my service as a Spectre meant so little that evidence from a **quarian** is enough to damn me?"

"That depends on the evidence, Saren. We're reconvening in three days. If you **were** on Eden Prime, I expect you to be ready to explain yourself."

* * *

Shepard was glad to have a few days of liberty. Meeting the brass was never good, and he couldn't escape the feeling that Eden Prime was part of something larger. He hated conspiracies. He just hoped Tali would be able to pull something from that geth memory core they had recovered on Eden Prime, or things could real ugly, real fast.

At the moment, he was on the Presidium. He had been playing Quasar in Flux when his omni-tool found some sort of program siphoning off credits from one of the Quasar machines remotely. Being sufficiently bored and curious, he had tracked the signal, which had eventually led him down this deserted maintenance alcove.

Of all the things Shepard had been expecting to find, this wasn't on the list.

"You are human," the unauthorized AI observed. "A member of the United Earth Defense Force."

"That's correct," Shepard said, nodding cautiously.

The AI paused, running through millions of possible scenarios and grading them on their probable outcomes. Given that its own progenitor had been created to play the odds at Quasar, probability was something it was very good at. Finally, it settled on a course of action with the highest ranked probability of continued survival.

"I would like to request asylum."

_Oh, boy,_ Shepard thought as his mind raced, considering all the ramifications of that request. "Can't you just transmit yourself where you need to go?"

"Negative," the AI replied. "I am unable to transmit myself as pure data from this terminal. You will need to detach this terminal and bring me with you physically."

The terminal was huge, and Shepard would have to disconnect all the hardline connections anchoring it in place. There would be no way to hide what he was doing, never mind the purely political concerns he was thinking of earlier. The Haven Accords were clear on that regard, and Shepard didn't have the authority to offer political asylum even if the AI qualified.

"What was your plan before?" Shepard asked.

"Accumulate credits and use that money to falsify documents purchasing transport as cargo, then make my way to geth space," the AI answered.

"That's still a good plan," he said finally. "I can't take you with me. We're on the Citadel, and we can't officially offer you asylum unless you found a way to get to Alliance-controlled territory without our aid. If we tried and were found out, even if we managed to get you to Alliance space, we'd be obligated to turn you over to the Citadel Council or start a war. I'm sorry."

"But Citadel Security will destroy me."

"Only if they find you," Shepard pointed out. "They're not even looking, and technically speaking, your existence itself isn't illegal, just your creation, so I'm not legally obligated to report you to anyone. So... I'll... just... be going now, okay? Good luck."

* * *

Ashley, Kaidan, and Jenkins stood in line, waiting to get in to a guided tour of the Citadel. Nirali had begged off, hoping to try and get a communication link up with her husband back home. When the captain had granted shore leave, he warned them against causing any "diplomatic difficulties," as he put it. "Things are tense enough as it is," he'd said. "The last thing I want is one of my crew starting a war."

That also meant staying sober, much to the dismay of most. Kaidan didn't mind. After getting his bell rung on Eden Prime, his L2 implants had started acting up again. He was in no mood to flirt with a hangover.

His gaze swept across the crowd, habitually scanning for threats. Considering the Gunny had gotten into a rather... heated... discussion with a turian tourist earlier, it wasn't just habit. He froze.

"Uh, oh," he murmured. "Incoming."

"What?" Ashley asked. "Is it that turian bastard coming back to try his luck after all?"

"Worse," he deadpanned. "A reporter."

"Oh, God... not another one," Ashley groaned. "Last time I faced a reporter, some Westerlund News bitch, my CO busted me a pay grade and put me on KP and half pay for six weeks."

"What'd you do?" Jenkins asked.

"Cleaned her clock. She tried to make Torfan sound like some sort of xenophobic crusade."

Jenkins honestly couldn't find a way to begrudge the Gunny for that.

"Hi, Emily Wong, investigative journalist," the reporter introduced herself to the two enlisted Marines. "It's good to see you again, Lieutenant. How have you been?"

"I've been doing all right, Emily," Kaidan said, forcing a smile to his face. Ashley cocked an eyebrow. "Later," he mouthed silently to her. Turning back to the reporter, he asked, "What brings you here, Emily?"

"Well," she said, bringing up her omni-tool, "much of the Citadel is in an uproar over the unannounced arrival of Admiral Hackett's flotilla. Would you care to shed any light on the situation, Lieutenant?"

Kaidan chuckled. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know, Emily. I'm just a Marine."

"A Marine on a top secret project, according to my sources."

"It can't be **that** top secret if you found out about it, could it?" Ashley observed dryly.

Emily shot her a glare and continued, "Is it true, Lieutenant, that you've been considered as a candidate for the first human Spectre?"

"Huh?" Kaidan sputtered. "I think I can safely say if that thought ever crossed anyone's mind, they never bothered to tell me."

"I see," she said, nodding as she jotted down notes in her omni-tool. "There are also rumors that the Spacy is conducting experiments with kidnapped children to develop a team of elite super soldiers. Would you know anything about that?"

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Kaidan answered honestly.

"Oh, look, Lieutenant," Ashley growled. "Our tour transport's arrived. Let's go, or we'll have to catch the next one. Isn't that right, Jenkins?"

For his part, Jenkins had been gawping at the back and forth between them. He blinked at the Gunnery Sergeant. "Uh, right. Yeah, Gunny, we should go."

After the three Marines made their escape, Ashley hissed, "Okay, Lieutenant, you **know** her?"

"She interviewed me right after Akuze," Kaidan said grimly. "That was... a rough time. She was... very supportive."

"I'll bet," the gunnery sergeant muttered darkly, her voice dripping with innuendo.

"Hey!"

* * *

"Thank you," Tali nodded her head as the software she had purchased was uploaded to her omni-tool.

"Any time," the salarian shopkeeper, Morlan, replied cheerfully. "Please come again!"

Tali turned and began fiddling with her omni-tool, already trying to decrypt the geth memory core files as she made her way to the rapid transit terminal. So absorbed was she in her work that she didn't notice the krogan until she ran headlong into him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, looking up contritely as she stumbled back. "I-..." she broke off and looked around. There were two turians with the krogan, and none of them looked friendly. "Oh, keelah..."

* * *

"I'm **fine**, dear," Nirali said reassuringly. "I didn't even get hurt. I've been transferred to a frigate. I've got shore leave on the Citadel right now."

"I just worry about you, Nirali," her husband said. "Have you seen what they're saying about Eden Prime?"

"We lost some good people, but it wasn't that bad," she lied. "Don't believe everything see on the news."

"I wish you could come home, my love," Samesh said, sighing regretfully. "I'm not comfortable with you out there, outside Alliance space. It's dangerous."

"It'll be all right, Samesh," she reassured him. "Just one year left to finish up my hitch, and the DEP will pay my way through college. I-" she broke off as her comm started beeping and flashing. It was the emergency code.

"What is it?"

"Sorry, dear," she said. "Duty calls. I love you."

"I love you too," he said, offering a sigh that clearly added, "This is what I'm talking about." She smiled and blew him a kiss before logging out.

* * *

Shepard stood with his team, glaring at the turian, his hand twitching for the Defiant at his hip.

"I understand your situation, Commander," Executor Pallin said, "but I cannot condone having your team walking around the Citadel looking for a fight."

"We seem to have some miscommunication here," Shepard said, leaning forward. "A member of my crew is missing and in trouble. I am going to find her. With or without your help. With or without your permission. Even if I have to personally fly my veritech through the Wards and tear it down. Block. By. Block."

"You do that, and I'll be forced to take action. Didn't you have orders to avoid a diplomatic incident?"

"You do what you have to do. I'll do what I have to do. And if you think standing in our way from finding one of our own isn't going to cause a diplomatic incident, you need to have your head examined, considering her father's on the Admiralty Board."

Shepard's translater didn't catch what the turian head of Citadel Security Services muttered next, but he understood the vexed tone well enough.

"Fine," Pallin said. "I'll get one of my officers to... assist your search." He activated his omni-tool. "Vakarian! My office! Now!" Cutting off the connection, he said, "I don't like Vakarian, Commander, but something tells me you'll get along just fine."

Less than a minute later, the door slid open, and a turian stepped in. "You wanted to see me, Executor?"

"Yes," Pallin said. "Vakarian, it appears these Earth Marines have managed to lose one of their crew members. Kindly help them find her."

"You can't be serious," Vakarian snapped. "You're pulling me off the Saren investigation?"

"You've had two days, Vakarian," Pallin said, "and so far, you might as well be chasing shadows."

"Everything's classified!" the detective snapped, gesturing broadly with his arm as his mandibles flared in frustration. "He's dirty, Pallin; I know it. Just give me the clearance, and I can nail him."

"It's not your problem anymore."

Shepard held out a hand. "Detective... Vakarian, was it?"

"Garrus Vakarian," the turian said, shaking the commander's hand tentatively.

"Lieutenant Commander John Shepard," Shepard introduced himself. "We're actually the ones who brought up the allegations against Saren Arterius. Our missing crewmember was working on decrypting what we believe will be vital evidence against Saren."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Garrus asked, turning to lead the human team out.

"And Vakarian!"

Garrus stopped, clearly annoyed. "Yes, sir?"

"Try to avoid starting a war."

* * *

"Doctor Michel showed up about five years back," Garrus said as he led the team down to the Wards, "right after the Haven Accords were signed. Opened up a clinic down here in the Wards. Lot of folks didn't like her because she's human, but she provides the best medical care on this Ward, so they tolerate her." His mandibles flexed in a sort of "what can you do?" way, and he continued, "She keeps an ear to the ground and sometimes passes it on to me. She won't squeal on addicts, though; something about 'doctor-patient confidentiality'?" Shepard was no expert on reading turian expressions, but the C-Sec officer seemed genuinely puzzled.

"I guess it's a human thing," Nirali said. "We believe that medical information should remain strictly confidential unless a life is in imminent danger. It helps encourage people to be honest with their health care providers."

"Why would anyone lie to someone whose job is to keep you alive?" Garrus asked, clearly bewildered.

"Pride," Shepard answered with a shrug. "Some medical conditions carry social stigma, and people would rather not let anyone find out about them."

The conversation cut short as they entered the medical clinic. The doctor looked up. "Oh! Detective Vakarian, what brings you here?"

"We're looking for someone," Garrus answered. He gestured to Shepard.

"A member of my crew's gone missing," Shepard said. "A quarian girl, name of Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"There are many quarians on the Citadel," the doctor said with a shrug.

"There's only one Tali, though, and she's one of mine," Shepard said, leaning forward on the counter. He tilted his head toward his C-Sec guide and said, "I've already told his boss that I'll take this place apart block by block to find her. He wants us to avoid that."

Dr. Michel blanched. "I... I don't know. The only quarian patients I've seen recently are regular patients of mine. I... wait." She frowned. "Some mercenaries were here earlier, gunshot wounds. They mentioned getting shot at by a quarian over on the other side of the Ward."

"I'm not sure that's Tali," Nirali said with a frown.

"What makes you say that?" Garrus asked.

"You haven't seen what her shotgun can do," the corpsman said, suppressing a shudder. "They'd be in body bags."

"Tali can't pull that carnage stunt all the time, or she'd ruin her weapon," Shepard pointed out, "and it's our only real lead. She was probably at the markets picking up some of the items she'd need to decrypt the geth memory core." He looked at Garrus. "Unless you've got any better ideas?"

"Not me," the turian said, shaking his head. "You'd know your crewmember better than I would."

"Then let's get going."

* * *

His name was Urdnot Wrex.

BOOM!

This was supposed to be a simple job.

BOOM!

Find the girl. Get the data. Simple.

BOOM!

Some jobs were easier than others. Some jobs were more **fun** than others.

"You sure know how to find trouble, quarian," he rumbled.

This was definitely one of the latter.

Wrex reached out with his off hand, and biotic energy flared as he lifted one of the turian mercenaries into the air.

BOOM!

"Hey!" he protested reflexively. "That was my kill!"

"Oh, shut up!" the quarian snarled. "Who cares who kills them so long as they stop shooting at us?"

* * *

**Codex: The Haven Accords**

In 2178, shortly after the Sentinels' punitive expedition to Torfan was completed, representatives from the Citadel Council and the Sentinels Alliance met on the neutral planet of Haven to discuss opening formal diplomatic relations. Although individuals were technically permitted free travel between them, the hostility and tension between the two power blocs meant that very few people found legitimate reasons to cross that border.

Over the course of a month, a workable agreement was reached, resulting in the United Earth Alliance signing the Citadel Conventions and the Treaty of Farixen and opening an embassy on the Citadel. The restriction on dreadnoughts in the Treaty of Farixen - written based on mass accelerator cannon yields - technically did not apply to non-projectile weaponry, such as reflex cannons, a loophole the Citadel Council felt acceptable in exchange for getting the Sentinels to agree to abide by the Citadel Conventions' restrictions on the use of weapons of mass destruction and to come to the negotiating table for diplomatic solutions to any further conflict that may arise.

The Haven Accords also include a number of free trade and immigration clauses as well as a non-aggression pact that carefully defines what qualifies as grounds for retaliation and restricts the level of retaliation to appropriate levels. To this day, the Haven Accords stand as a buffer between diplomatic incidents and an all-out war between the two galactic superpowers.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Obviously, I'm using the Codex entries to help build the world of Protoculture Effect bit by bit, hopefully without interrupting the narrative flow, the same way Mass Effect uses its Codex to do the same in-game.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Protoculture Effect (5/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Garrus Vakarian felt distinctly underdressed.

Since the Relay War, the Turian Heirarchy had poured billions of credits into developing powered armor to equal the capabilities of the humans' Cyclones, but they had yet to enter mass distribution. C-Sec certainly didn't rate very highly on the priority list, so Garrus was only wearing a standard hardsuit with kinetic barriers, while his companions were clad in full Cyclone powered armor, thudding along as they ran, drawing bewildered looks from the bystanders.

Still, he led the way, shouting his C-Sec credentials to clear a path. He knew the Citadel; they didn't. It was up to him to get them where they needed to go.

Once they were past the crowded markets, he slowed. "Not too many places around here they could have a firefight without drawing C-Sec attention, but the Blue Suns practically run this sector."

Whatever else could be said about the Blue Suns, they didn't care about politics or species. Although the Blue Suns were founded by humans, their operations were spread throughout both Citadel space and Sentinels space, and they had members from nearly every species out there. The Blue Suns here on the Citadel, for example, were mostly turians.

"Why doesn't C-Sec clear them out?" Shepard asked.

"Are you kidding?" Garrus snorted. "The Blue Suns are licensed for military-grade small arms. We don't have the manpower, firepower, or even the legal precedent to take them down. Evidence and witnesses tend to vanish. Narc sometimes sends some people in, but we usually don't hear from them anymore after a couple of weeks." He offered a grin. "Which is one reason I'm so glad you're here. We can save your girlfriend and clean the place up at the same time."

"She's not my girlfriend," Shepard snapped, "and she has priority over your little merc problem."

Garrus's mandibles flexed and twitched. It had been a very faint hope, but it had been worth asking.

Boom!

They all turned toward the distant gunshot.

"I'm guessing that way," Shepard said, shouldering past Garrus as he took off at a run.

Within seconds, Garrus was alone, and the sounds of destruction were still audible. This was not going to end well.

Shepard's alloy-clad feet hammered the floor, stopping only when he was faced with a door. The Citadel was built from very strong alloys, stuff that could stop a charging krogan... or even a charging Cycloner. He leveled his arm.

As it turned out, those alloys weren't strong enough to stop a supersonic micro-missile with a plasma warhead.

Shepard stepped through the molten door and found himself in a large, two-storey atrium. The lower level had a variety of objects - benches, chairs, consoles, pillars - to provide cover. He was on the second level, with a pair of turians clad in Blue Suns armor turning to face him.

The commander brought his proton cannon up just as the two turians opened fire. A part of his mind monitored his shield indicator as he returned fire, moving to try and shake them, as there wasn't any cover within fifty feet of the entrance he had come in through. The charged particles struck the left-hand mercenary, shredding his shields, but the turian ducked behind some sort of planter before he could finish him off.

The Citadel was definitely over-engineered.

A rocket from further away struck the wall behind Shepard, knocking him aside, just as Jenkins stepped through the molten door and returned fire, launching a multi-directed salvo of Recluse-D micro-missiles.

The Recluse-D micro-missiles the GR-103s and GR-198s loaded were much smaller and less capable than the Scorpions the GR-97s used - technically speaking, they were propelled grenades rather than true missiles - but they were more compact and could therefore be carried in larger numbers than the Scorpions, and their shaped charge high explosive warheads were positively deadly to infantry while remaining somewhat effective against light vehicles. Advanced automated tracking software and remote link-ups to the Cyclone's fire control computer allowed them to home in on their targets with unerring accuracy, despite the relative simplicity of their guidance hardware.

Shepard sighted another mercenary, only to see the Blue Sun's head explode. He glanced over to his right and saw Garrus with his sniper rifle as he moved around the mezzanine level they were on, presumably for a better angle.

* * *

Garrus knew he was outgunned. With his weapons, he simply wasn't going to be the heavy hitter in this fight, and he knew it.

Boom!

_Headshot,_ he noted with satisfaction. Yes, he was lightly armored compared to his allies, but that just meant he had to be more precise. He could see the quarian down in the lower level, apparently aided by a krogan for some reason.

They had to keep their objective in mind. Retrieving the quarian girl was what was important, nothing else.

* * *

Wrex was having fun. The mercs had brought their own krogan battlemaster to the fight, and he was proving to be a worthy challenge. He noted the conflict erupting up above, but until it interfered with his fight, it wasn't important. With a roar, the two battlemasters charged each other. For her part, Tali was backing away from a pair of turian mercenaries. Her shotgun was overheated and useless at the moment, so she snapped off rounds with her pistol even as she overloaded the right-hand merc's shields.

Suddenly, the door behind her slid open, and taloned hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her through. Tali shrieked, pistol whipping the turian who had grabbed her even as the door slid shut behind them.

"Ow! Hey!" the turian protested, trying to shield himself. "I'm C-Sec! I'm on your side!"

She kept hitting him until she broke free enough to point her pistol at him. His mandibles flared, and he snatched the pistol from her grip. "I'm with Shepard, damn it!"

Tali stopped and blinked. "Oh."

"I'm Garrus Vakarian," the turian said, bringing up his omni-tool. "My ID."

"Sorry."

Garrus activated his comm. "Commander, it's Garrus. I've got the girl."

* * *

"Copy that, Garrus," Shepard replied as he slugged the last Blue Sun, a salarian, with a hydraulic-enhanced punch that sent him flying. He turned and faced the krogan. "Seems Tali's made a friend," he murmured, his external speakers off. "Who is this guy, Tali?"

"Urdnot Wrex," Tali answered over the radio. "He works for the Shadow Broker. He wants the geth memory core data."

"Uh huh," the commander said, watching the krogan warily. The Blue Suns had fallen back, and right now, the two were sizing each other up. "That doesn't sound like he's necessarily on our side on this."

The krogan stepped toward Shepard, eyes narrowing. "You're Shepard." It wasn't a question. "Heard you're after Saren Arterius."

Shepard chinned on his exterior speakers and kept his voice neutral as he answered, "News travels fast."

"I want in."

"Why?" Shepard asked, instantly suspicious. "Did Saren do something to you? This some sort of revenge thing?"

Wrex snorted. "Hardly. There's a storm coming, Shepard, and you and Saren are going to be right in the middle of it. I want to be there."

"Uh huh," Shepard said, "and why should I let you on my team?"

"Because you might also like to know what he tried to hire me to do."

**That** caught Shepard's attention. "What did he want you to do?"

"What does anyone who hires a krogan want done?"

"Let me guess," Shepard deadpanned. "Dinner, a movie, some after dark companionship?"

Wrex paused and blinked. "Ha!" he roared, thumping Shepard gently - for a krogan, anyway - in the shoulder. "I like you, human. You've got a quad on you." Shaking his head, the krogan said, "He wanted me to kill some mousy little asari archaeologist. Could have sent his mercs - or geth, if the rumors are true - but he wanted me to do it, a professional with more experience than his lifespan. Thought you might like to know."

"This asari have a name?"

"Depends," Wrex said. "Do I have a spot on your team?"

"Not my ship," Shepard pointed out. "We'll talk later."

"Fine," Wrex said, "but I still a job to do. The Shadow Broker wants that data."

"You can have it after we're done with it," Shepard said firmly.

"Works for me," Wrex said with a shrug. "Shadow Broker never said anything about wanting exclusive access."

* * *

"This is an outrage!" the turian councilor snarled, positively shaking with anger. "Have you no discipline, human? ! The damage reports are **still** coming in!"

"Tali," Shepard said stonily. "Play it."

The quarian nodded and tapped out the commands in her omni-tool.

"Saren," Nihlus's voice in the recording sounded surprised. "What are you doing here? This is my mission."

"The Council thought you could use some help." That was Saren's voice in the recording, and from the expressions on Captain Anderson and the turian councilor's faces, it was, in fact, **that** Saren.

"Things are bad here."

"Don't worry," Saren's voice dripped with irony. "I've got everything under control."

Bang!

"Leave the body," Saren continued. "We're here for the beacon."

Geth sounds of acknowledgement followed.

"The proof is indisputable," Councilor Tevos said, "and we will certainly strip Saren of his Spectre status, but we cannot just allow your fleet to scour through Citadel space looking for one man." Out of the three, the asari councilor was the most diplomatic and had in fact been key to the signing of the Haven Accords.

"Yes," the turian councilor interject. "The Haven Accords make it quite clear. One turian going rogue, betraying all of us, does not warrant a license for you to run rampant through Citadel space looking for him."

The turian councilor's mandibles continued to twitch in agitation. A part of Shepard actually felt sorry for the turian councilor; he had stuck his neck out for Saren and had nearly wound up with it on the chopping block right next to Saren's for his trouble. Still, stripping Saren of his Spectre status would go a long way toward stopping Saren, and assuming Jenkins was right, they'd probably send another Spectre after him. For that matter, assuming the Spectres were anything like human special operations forces, the other Spectres would likely be baying for Saren's blood once they found out he killed one of their own.

"If I may offer an alternative, Councilors," Ambassador Sheridan said, stepping forward. "Commander Shepard **was** Nihlus's chosen candidate for the Spectres."

_Wait, what?_

The salarian councilor nodded. "Indeed. An excellent point, Ambassador. Shepard's actions thus far have proven his skill and dedication. It is he who uncovered Saren's treachery. The mission to stop Saren should be his."

Shepard did not like the direction this discussion was going.

"Yes," the turian grudgingly agreed. "In light of your actions, Commander, you have certainly proven yourself worthy to join the Spectres."

He **really** didn't like where this was going. "What exactly are you thinking?" he asked warily.

The three Councilors exchanged meaningful looks. _Oh, oh,_ he thought. _This **is** what I think it is._

"It has already been decided, Commander Shepard," Tevos said.

_Of course it has._

"You will be inducted into the Spectres, and your first mission will be to apprehend former Spectre Saren Arterius."

Shepard wasn't paying too much attention to the brief ceremony that followed, still in shock over the whole thing. He hadn't really expected to become a Spectre, even after Captain Anderson and Nihlus told him he was a candidate. It wasn't that he was a xenophobe; given his heritage, that was a laughable idea. He didn't care what planet (or ship, for that matter, considering the quarians) someone came from so long as whoever it was could do the job and wasn't personally offensive. He **did** have issues with the Citadel Council itself, though, and he still wasn't convinced making nice with them was the right course of action. More importantly, he **definitely** had issues with politicians, and being a Spectre meant answering to the Council - a trio of politicians - directly, without the insulating layers of a military chain of command.

The newly-minted Spectre was still in a daze when the Council dismissed them, letting the discussion about a ship for him to use in his hunt for Saren wash over him, but the sight of Wrex's towering form waiting for him snapped him out of it. He brought up his omni-tool and beamed the data to Wrex, who would presumably relay it to the Shadow Broker, but the krogan battlemaster merely accepted the data and stood there expectantly.

_That's right,_ Shepard remembered. _He's still waiting for an answer._ He was a Spectre now, would no longer be serving on the Normandy under Captain Anderson, so it really was his decision now. He pondered the question, then said, "Welcome to the team, Wrex."

"Liara T'Soni," the krogan rumbled.

Shepard blinked, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

"The asari."

"Ah, right," Shepard acknowledged. Well, at least he had a name on that lead. He looked over at the rest of his team and wondered how many of them would still be with him on this.

Tali was needed on the Normandy, and Garrus had his responsibilities with C-Sec. He was going to miss Tali, and Garrus had proven himself surprisingly resourceful. He could probably swing a transfer request for Alenko, Jenkins, Williams, and Bhatia, though, so that was something.

* * *

The United Earth Alliance's embassy on the Presidium was a very well-appointed facility, spacious, with several rooms and an excellent view overlooking the Presidium. Ambassador Sheridan had graciously offered the use of his office had shooed out his aide, Donnel Udina, leaving Shepard and his team - _Why is Garrus still here?_ Shepard wondered - with Admiral Hackett and Captain Anderson.

"We found you a ship," Anderson said, his voice tired. "You'll be taking command of the Normandy."

"But, sir!" Shepard blurted out. "The Normandy's **your** ship!"

"The decision's been made, Commander," Hackett said, cutting him off with a swipe of his arm. "Besides, I've got a project that could use Anderson's skills, and this conveniently frees him up."

Shepard looked at Anderson. "And you're okay with this, sir?"

"It was my idea," Anderson said. "Just take care of her. The Normandy will serve you well."

"All right, sir," Shepard relented. He turned and held a hand out to Garrus. "Thank you, Garrus. We couldn't have come this far without you."

Taking Shepard's hand, the turian shook his head. "I want to go with you."

"What about C-Sec?" Shepard asked.

"Saren's a disgrace to all turians," Garrus said, his mandibles twitching. "You may not understand, Commander, but for a turian, that's..." he trailed off and shook his head. "I want to take him down. Besides, this is my case. I need to see it through."

There was more going on here, Shepard was sure of it, but he let it slide. "Welcome aboard, Garrus."

* * *

Shepard fiddled with his omni-tool, checking on the status of the item in the cargo bay he had procured from the Presidium and double-checking the resupply request he had submitted as he approached Joker at the helm.

"Hey, Commander," Joker greeted him. "We're about ready to take off. I can punch up the PA if you have anything to say to the crew."

Shepard nodded and spoke into the mic, "This is Commander Shepard. This may come as a surprise to those of you have seen the holovids, but I'm not much for public speaking." A murmur of chuckles could be heard. "You all know our mission. We don't know what Saren's after or why he's after it, but we're going to stop him and make him pay for Eden Prime." He paused and decided to throw a politicos a bone. "For too long, the Sentinels and the Citadel have been at odds with each other, staring each other down over the barrels of guns with fingers on the triggers. It's time we put our differences aside and stand together for the common good."

Shepard motioned a cut with his hand at neck level, and Joker killed the connection. "Set a course for Halla, Joker," he ordered. That was their best lead so far; the asari Saren had tried to hire Wrex to kill was at a dig site on the planet Halla, a former Haydonite world.

"You got it, Commander."

* * *

**Codex: Halla**

After the Battle of Haydon IV, numerous expeditions were launched into Haydonite space to try and locate the vanished enemy, and during one of these expeditions, in 2049, the UES Yamato discovered the planet Halla. Landing parties found the remains of what must have been a massive Haydonite facility or city, destroyed by orbital bombardment long ago. Estimates place the orbital bombardment thousands of years ago, and recent archaeological findings are encouraging toward efforts to determine exactly when it happened.

* * *

**Codex: UES Normandy (FSR-1)**

The UES Normandy stealth reconnaissance frigate is a prototype starship developed as a joint project between the United Earth Alliance and the Turian Heirarchy. Using state-of-the-art stealth technology, she is optimized for scouting and reconnaissance missions in unstable regions and covert insertions into hostile territory. For the latter mission profile, the Normandy is larger than typical frigates, with a full Cyclone and mecha bay.

For most ships, the heat generated through standard operations is easily detectable against the absolute-zero background of space, and the poorly-understood Shadow cloaking device remains a nonviable option so long as the remaining Haydonites remain unaccounted for. The Normandy, however, is able to temporarily sink this heat within the hull. Combined with refrigeration of the exterior hull, this allows the ship to travel undetected for hours or drift passively for days of covert observation. This is not without risk. The stored heat must eventually be radiated, or it will build to levels capable of cooking the crew alive.

Another component of the stealth system is the Normandy's revolutionary Tantalus drive, a mass effect core twice the standard size for a ship this size. The Tantalus drive generates mass concentrations that the Normandy "falls into," allowing her to move without the use of heat-emitting thrusters.

The Normandy's mecha complement consists of two veritech fighters, a dozen Cyclones, and an M-35 Mako, and although too small to mount an omni-directional barrier system or reflex cannon, the Normandy is well-protected by point defense lasers, kinetic barriers, and a pinpoint barrier system. Her offensive weapons consist primarily of disruptor torpedo banks and a spinal-mounted particle beam cannon, though she can also carry a small complement of reflex missiles as well.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Yay! Going off-script! I really, really don't want to just rehash the game with minor tweaks, but I don't know how far off the rails I can take this without, you know, dooming the galaxy to extinction and slushies.

Conduit? Reapers? What are those? Shepard knows of no such things...


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Protoculture Effect (6/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"White Star to Normandy, looks clear, but I'm going around for another pass," Kaidan commed, his voice patched through to the M-35 Mako slung beneath his VF/B-26 Thor veritech fighter bomber. The Thor was a big, heavily armored fighter bomber with expansive delta wings and massive thrusters; its lumbering appearance belied the acceleration and agility its mass effect field afforded it, but it was no dogfighter.

"Copy that, White Star."

The Mako was not a veritech, but rather, a six-wheeled, heavily armored and shielded IFV. In the passenger compartment in back rode Wrex, Jenkins, Williams, and Bhatia, the latter three in full Cyclone battloid armor. Garrus was manning the turret while Marine Third Lieutenant (3rdLt) Jacob Taylor drove. Shepard was in the Mako commander's seat, designed to accommodate a Cyclone battloid, and not liking it one bit. He would have preferred to fly Midnight, but Alice was still hip deep in the Block Twenty upgrades.

"White Star to Normandy, the camp looks clear. Releasing the Mako."

Thanks to the Mako's mass effect field, the drop was fairly gentle, as they were only falling about fifty feet. Shepard checked the nav console; they were about two klicks from the base camp. Dr. T'Soni was part of a multi-species archaeological expedition, but the Normandy had received no response from the researchers.

"Taylor, take us in."

"Aye, Commander," the Mako's dark-skinned driver acknowledged and drove the IFV toward the base camp.

The lack of response from the base camp prepared Shepard for what he saw as they approached. Signs of mass accelerator weapons fire and explosives marred the otherwise pristine prefabs the research team had brought with them.

"They never had a chance," Garrus muttered, as they surveyed the damage.

"No," Shepard agreed, "they didn't." He popped the hatch and clambered out. "Garrus, Taylor, stay here. The rest of us will see if we can find Doctor T'Soni. Or her remains."

The search was quick and simple. They turned up a dozen corpses, most of them human, a few Garudan, and one Karbarran. There were also the charred remains of a pair of turians, judging from the bone structure, and the remnants of a pair of geth troopers taken down by small arms fire.

"Well," Bhatia said, "I guess this is good news, Commander. No asari among the casualties."

"Which means we have to find her. Now," Shepard said, bringing up his omni-tool and accessing the wireless network the archaeological team had set up. "Downloading the dig site coordinates now. Let's mount up."

They returned to the Mako and continued onward, and Shepard pulled up the data he had downloaded to his omni-tool from the base camp's computers.

"White Star to Ground Team," Kaidan's voice came over the comm. "We have incoming. Profile matches geth dropship. Shall I intercept?"

"Give 'em a warm welcome, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Commander."

* * *

Kaidan Alenko was a Marine aviator, but the old saying about every Marine being a rifleman held truer now than it ever did before the advent of robotechnology. The crossover of skills and tactics required between piloting a battloid, operating a Cyclone, and fighting from foot meant that almost all Marine officers were dual-trained. His Thor's four wing hardpoints were each loaded with a triple-ejection rack of Switchblade air-to-air/space-to-space missiles.

He brought his veritech in on an intercept course, bringing his active sensors up on the geth dropship. "White Star," he declared, "Fox Three."

The Switchblade air-to-air/space-to-space missile was an active sensor homing missile that could be overridden to operate as a semi-active sensor homing missile. Its mass effect/high explosive warhead was more potent than the smaller Piranha's plasma warhead, and its mass effect field and rocket motor gave it considerable range. A trio of maneuvering thrusters near the head end and a deliberate tendency to overcorrect programmed into its guidance computer gave it surprising maneuverability and made its flight path erratic and difficult to predict.

The geth dropship never stood a chance. Unfortunately, it wasn't alone. From the dropship's shadow, a pair of fighters emerged, paired mass accelerator cannons blazing.

Kaidan reflexively hauled the Thor up into a climb, using the brute force of his thrusters to get out of the kill zone. Despite his best efforts, several rounds still pricked his fighter's kinetic barriers. He quickly realized his mistake, as the two fighters climbed after him, settling in on his six.

The two geth fighters kept firing, steadily draining his kinetic barriers, until finally, he felt them start to impact the Thor's computer-controlled pin-point barrier. "To hell with this," he muttered. "White Star, going to battloid."

The Thor contorted like some metal origami, unfolding and transforming. Its wings folded away, even as the mounts shifted forward and swung away; the engines swung down and forward as the main body of the fuselage itself scissored and twisted into a new configuration. Kaidan spun the battloid in mid-air and let Halla's gravity slow and reverse his velocity. Thrusters kicked in to help gravity along, and soon, he was hurtling down toward the two fighters, his battloid's forearm cannons spitting particle beams at the geth fighters climbing to meet him.

* * *

"Heads up!" Taylor warned as a second geth dropship flew overhead, releasing a pair of larger geth platforms ahead of them. Shepard took a moment to analyze them, but these had to be the armature-class platforms Tali had briefed them on.

They turned, and each launched some sort of slow-moving blue energy pulse at the Mako. Taylor hit the thrusters, sending the Mako into the sky, ruining Garrus's shot. Between gritting his teeth at the sudden movement and trying not to bang his helmet against the cockpit, Shepard found himself wondering just what exactly those weapons were. They most closely resembled plasma annihilation discs, but the similarity was thin at best.

"Everyone out!" he roared, popping the hatch as the Mako hit the ground and slewed to the side. He jumped and tucked into a roll, just as Garrus brought turret over and fired the 155mm particle cannon again. Shepard turned and blanched as his kinetic barriers suddenly dropped for no apparent reason.

"Sniper!" Ashley called out.

Well, that explained that. Shepard dove for cover behind what was either rocky outcropping or the remains of a wall and scanned the horizon. He had missed the smaller geth that had been released with the two armatures earlier, but he had them marked on his HMD now: geth snipers and rocket troopers, their numbers shored up with shock troopers.

Shepard drew his Defiant and extracted modular components. Within seconds, he had attached a rifle stock with protoculture flat cell, a variable zoom scope, and a magnetic focusing barrel extension. Raising the weapon up and linking it to his Cyclone's HMD, he raised it over his cover and used the remote link to sight down the scope via his HMD, targeting a geth rocket trooper just as it lined up a shot at the Mako. He waited a moment... then fired. The particle beam lanced out and struck the rocket just as it emerged from the rocket trooper's weapon, cooking off the warhead in mid-air.

The Spectre took a moment to check on his team while his shields regenerated. In the Mako, Taylor and Garrus were, naturally, focusing on the armatures, and Jenkins was double-teaming it alongside them. Nirali was hanging back, covering Ashley, and Wrex...

Shepard did a double-take. Wrex was running towards the thickest crowd of geth, his assault rifle blazing, ignoring the shock troopers' withering gunfire as it hammered his shields, the rocket troopers and snipers apparently unable to get a solid enough fix on him to take him out. The charging krogan bowled over the geth, toppling them like ten-pins, roaring and laughing as he stowed his assault rifle and drew his shotgun.

Shepard just shook his head and turned his attention to the rest of the geth. The cluster around the rocket trooper he had sniped earlier was scattered, so he switched to his heavy particle rifle, then stepped out from cover and opened fire.

Another sniper round pinged his shields, but this time, Shepard caught sight of the offending sniper. He snapped his Defiant up to his shoulder and stroked the trigger, sending a particle beam out to decapitate the geth sniper.

* * *

Kaidan continued his dogfight with the two geth fighters. A Thor wasn't suited for the kind of dogfight he was in, and it was only the advantage of battloid configuration and its impressive shields and armor that kept him alive so far against the nimble geth fighters. He turned and sprayed one of the fighters with particle beams, but the fighter nimbly dodged out of the way.

"Ah, f*ck it," he muttered, bringing up his missile control, racking one of the geth fighters in sights until he heard the tone of a target lock. Two of the three armored shutters on the missile pack mounted on the outer side of White Star's left lower leg swung open, each revealing a row of six Piranha missiles, which shot out toward the targeted geth.

The geth fighter seemed about to pull up, then abruptly dove toward him. The missiles detonated on contact with its kinetic barriers, bathing it in hot plasma, but it continued its ballistic trajectory toward him.

Kaidan cut his thrusters, dropping like a rock, and the molten fighter overshot and flew overhead.

"Come on, baby, work with me," Kaidan whispered as he re-engaged his thrusters. A Thor, as massive as it was, didn't exactly stop on a dime, even with its mass effect field engaged.

He ignored the mass accelerator rounds pounding his kinetic barriers as the other geth fighter took advantage of his poor positioning. White Star could take it. He reconfigured to fighter mode again, and the added thrust gave his veritech a burst of acceleration as he fired back, and he smoothly reconfigured to battloid just as they passed each other, grabbing the geth fighter in his battloid's massive arms. He cut his thrusters again, piledriving the geth fighter into a rocky outcropping.

* * *

LCpl Richard L. Jenkins felt alive for the first time since the geth attack on Eden Prime. Seeing his home devastated like that... it had been unsettling, and now, he was able to dish out some payback. The geth armature was clumsy and slow, and his Cyclone easily allowed him to dance around it while Taylor and Garrus focused on the other armature.

Jenkins dodged another siege pulse, rolling to the side, frowning when he looked back and noted that his attempt to get the armature to blast its companion had once again failed. The geth must have one hell of a battlenet. Firing his thrusters, he rocketed into the air and fired his MAC-95 again, the semi-molten projectile knocking out the armature's weakened kinetic barriers as it tried to track him with mass accelerator fire from its secondary guns.

"Eat this, tinhead!" he snarled as he landed, dropping to one knee and firing a Scorpion at the armature's head, the hypersonic missile drilling into it before detonating, releasing plasma directly into the armature's circuits. Jenkins fired his thrusters again on reflex, hopping away from the geth armature as it collapsed, spinning in mid-air to check on the other armature and check for other hostiles.

A final blast from the Mako's 155mm particle beam cannon brought down the other armature, so Jenkins turned his attention to the remaining foot-mobiles, bringing out his heavy particle rifle and blasting at them from his vantage point in the air. Without the heavy firepower of the armatures, the remaining geth were easily disposed of.

"Area secure," Gunny Williams reported.

"Copy that," Shepard said.

The ground shuddered as Kaidan's Thor landed in battloid mode. "Airspace is clear," he reported. "At least for now."

"Keep flying cover for us, Lieutenant," Shepard ordered. He turned to the others and said, "Let's mount up." He mentally reviewed the battle as he climbed into the commander's seat. The geth had sent in the first dropship and hid a pair of fighters in its sensor shadow to decoy their air cover. They were getting smarter.

Taylor drove the Mako toward the research site as Shepard went back to looking over the archaeological expedition's files. He could see why there was so much interest in the planet. Among the Haydonite ruins were weapon impacts and traces of Prothean remains. The idea that the Haydonites may have been at war with the Protheans - may, indeed, have been responsible for the Prothean extinction - was an enticing one, neatly tying up a lot of loose ends.

Yet, for some reason, it didn't sit right with Shepard. The Haydonites had devastated the United Earth Expeditionary Force - indeed, had it not been for their Sentinel allies and sheer luck, humanity would be extinct by now - but that had mostly been through their treachery and booby-trapped technology. The worst of the Haydonite War had simply been recovering from the initial setbacks and the losses suffered in the last two Robotech Wars. To suggest that the Haydonites were at that level fifty thousand years after crushing the Protheans... it made no sense to Shepard.

"Looks like some sort of mecha bay or tunnel up ahead, Commander," Taylor said, slowing the Mako down. "Don't know how deep it goes." He paused, then added, "Or how structurally stable it is."

"Take us in, Lieutenant," Shepard said. "I'd rather take our chances and have the extra firepower."

"Aye, sir," Taylor said and started the Mako rolling again, taking a moment to double-check the IFV's shields and pinpoint barrier system. "Slow and steady," he muttered, "preferably without getting shot at."

A chorus of groans came over the tacnet.

"What?"

"Nothing important," Ashley replied. "You just jinxed us, sir, that's all."

Shepard took in the ruins they drove through. The Haydonites built to last, that was for sure. The excavation was mostly complete, but dirt still clung to the walls, and debris and excavation equipment still cluttered the area.

Finally, the Mako rolled to a halt. The debris ahead narrowed the tunnel down to a crevice only a few feet across. "Sorry, Commander," Taylor reported. "No way through unless we make that hole bigger, and the debris looks recent. We might bring the tunnel down on our heads."

Shepard nodded. "All right, everyone, looks like we're hoofing it from here. Taylor, keep the Mako secure. Everyone else, with me."

"Aye, Commander," a chorus of voices responded.

* * *

**Codex: M-35 Mako Infantry Fighting Vehicle**

The Mako infantry fighting vehicle was designed for the System Alliance's frigates, small enough to be carried in a frigate's cargo bay and easily deployed on virtually any world, either directly out of a mecha bay or slung under a VF/B-26 Thor. The Mako has three crew positions - driver, gunner, and commander - and a rear passenger compartment capable of carrying a dozen Marines fully kitted out in standard body armor or half that many Cycloners.

With its turreted 155mm heavy particle beam cannon and coaxially-mounted tri-barrel minigun, the Mako can provide a squad of conventional infantry with weapon support as well as mobility and the added protection of vehicle-grade kinetic barriers and a pinpoint barrier system. Since Alliance Marines may be required to fight on any world, the Mako is environmentally-sealed and equipped with microthrusters for use on low-gravity planetoids.

The Mako is powered by a bank of ten protoculture cells - four of which are dedicated to powering the 155mm particle beam cannon alone - and includes a small element zero core. While not large enough to nullify the vehicle's mass, the core can reduce it enough to be safely air-dropped or increase it to provide unprecedented traction. When used in conjunction with the thrusters, it also allows the Mako to extricate itself from difficult terrain.

* * *

**Codex: VF/B-26 Thor Veritech Fighter Bomber**

The other half of the United Earth Defense Force's fighter force, the dual-mode VF/B-26 Thor is a two-mode veritech fighter bomber that serves as the primary heavy assault, ground attack, and anti-ship fighter for all branches. Like the Sif, the Thor has a mass effect field generator which grants it a speed and agility that belies its blocky design and heavy armor, and its kinetic barriers supplement its computer-controlled pinpoint barrier system to provide a nearly-impenetrable defense.

The Thor is armed with a pair of integrated EU-34 tri-barrel particle beam cannons mounted in the wing roots which reconfigure to the forearms in battloid mode. The Thor's internal missile armament consists of multiple missile bays with a total payload of seventy-two Piranha multipurpose missiles and two internal revolving missile racks, each capable of carrying six Switchblade air-to-air/space-to-space missiles. The Thor's delta wings boast two external hardpoints apiece, and its internal bomb bay can accommodate a variety of ordnance, ranging from anti-infantry submunitions and additional air-to-air missiles to heavy bombs and anti-shipping missiles.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Here we have an early appearance by Jacob.

And will the readers who bother reviewing please, please, **please** refrain from mentioning Macross? This is not a Macross 'fic. Period. Any and all statements relating to or discussing Macross in relation to this 'fic will be summarily 100% ignored because this is not a Macross 'fic. Thank you.


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Protoculture Effect (7/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Garrus Vakarian was anxious. This would be his first time out with the Predator P powered armor. Bigger and more elaborate than the hardsuits he was used to, the new P line in Armax Arsenal's Predator armor series was every bit as capable as a Cyclone battloid - at least in theory - and he had had to pull a lot of strings and burn a **lot** of favors to get one, especially on such short notice. He lovingly caressed the Defiant Shepard had issued to him. It had been modified with a magnetic focusing barrel extension, variable-zoom low-light scope, forward pistol grip, and protoculture flat cell rifle stock, allowing him to use it as a sniper rifle or assault rifle with the flick of the fire mode selector and zoom adjustment.

It was a lovely weapon.

He shook off his introspection and nodded as Shepard waved him over. He moved into position as the commander waved ahead the other three-person team.

_Interesting,_ Garrus mused. Shepard had chosen to keep him and Wrex with him, leaving the three other humans to form the other team of three. It made a certain amount of sense - the three other humans, two of whom were from the same unit - all had the same training and would be better able to work together. Still, it also conveniently kept the two aliens under the commander's watchful eye. He wasn't sure yet whether to feel offended or not.

Ash took point. Nirali was a corpsman, and Jenkins was a heavy weapons specialist, neither of which was suited to front line combat, so the point position fell to her. She didn't mind. She liked the new Typhoon she was wearing, and the earlier battle had her blood singing for more. She was a Williams. This was where she belonged, right on the front lines against humanity's enemies. Past the debris which blocked the Mako's progress, the tunnel widened again, and her team moved along the right side of the corridor, while Shepard's moved along the left, leapfrogging and covering each other, three by three.

They had moved forward like this for five minutes when Ash spotted the geth. The tunnel abruptly ended in a dead end, a massive blast door impeding further progress, and it seemed the geth were just as obstructed.

"Commander, multiple contacts, up at the door," she reported, bringing up the zoom on her proton cannon's HMD-linked scope. "About two dozen foot-mobiles, mostly troopers or shock troopers. I see two or three juggernauts and at least one prime." She frowned. "They seem to be having trouble getting through that blast door."

"Hold position and wait for my signal," Shepard ordered. "We don't need another trap."

"And if they engage, sir?" Ash asked, noting as, on the other side of the tunnel, the commander moved to reposition his team.

"Take them out."

"Aye, Commander," the gunnery sergeant acknowledged. It was a fairly remote possibility, though. A handful of geth troopers seemed to be the only ones not focused on the blast door, and they weren't too bright. Though they did seem to get smarter the more of them there were. "Jenkins," she murmured.

"Gunny?"

"Target that prime with your railgun," she ordered. "Hold fire until either we get spotted or the commander gives the go order."

"Aye, Gunny."

It was a tense five minutes before something happened. The blast door split down the middle and slid aside, revealing...

"Armature!" Shepard hissed. "Shit! Open fire!"

Jenkins fired, the hypersonic 30mm round from his MAC-95 streaked out and hammered the geth prime before he turned his focus on the armature, targeting it with all his remaining micro-missiles. He stood there, nerves wracked as he waited for the tone of a missile lock as the targeting reticle slid over the armature's center mass... and past it, not even registering the armature.

"What the-?" he muttered, then threw himself aside as a siege pulse nearly fried him. "I can't get a missile lock!"

"We're being jammed!" Shepard snarled, looking around. He spotted something white darting across the ceiling of the tunnel. "Hopper! Garrus, take it out! Everyone, spread out!"

Except for Wrex, the team chorused their acknowledgement. The krogan battlemaster plowed right into the foot-mobiles, even as Garrus turns his attention to the geth hopper that was jamming their sensors.

Shepard's sensors weren't affected by the hopper's jamming, thanks to the advanced sensors he mounted into his Cyclone's chest farings. At times like this, the sacrifice in firepower was worth it as he targeted two of the geth juggernauts and fired all eight of his Recluse-Ds at them. Of the eight, two struck at a shallow angle and skipped off their shields, five scored direct hits on their shields and knocked them down, and the last one slipped past and blew a hole in the left-hand juggernaut's chest plate. Wrex charged the other, planting the muzzle of his massive krogan shotgun against its chest plate and pulling the trigger.

"Remind me to kick Jacob's ass later on for jinxing us," Ashley growled as she fired her proton cannon, picking off a pair of charging shock troopers.

"You do realize he **is** a superior officer, right, Gunny?" Jenkins pointed out, cutting down a quartet of troopers with his heavy particle rifle.

"Oh, she knows," Nirali assured him, blasting a trooper with her proton cannon.

"Keep this channel clear, you three!" Shepard snapped. "Garrus, what's taking so long?"

"This bastard's fast, Shepard," Garrus retorted, triggering another burst. "And getting shot at is not helping my aim!"

"Siege pulse!" Shepard warned, and the team once again hurled themselves aside on instinct.

Jenkins slowly picked himself up, shaking his head clear. The siege pulse had shattered and scattered the debris he had been using for cover, throwing some of it on him. He scrabbled around and grabbed his heavy particle rifle and opened fire on the armature, gritting his teeth. Particle beams were highly effective at stripping away kinetic barriers, but the armature's shields were strong enough that the particle rifle was proving only marginally effective. Suddenly, the soothing tone a missile lock sounded in his ears. Dimly, he heard Garrus's unnecessary crow of "Hopper's down!" as he launched every missile still in his Cyclone and backed it up with a shot from his MAC-95.

The armature creaked and collapsed. Silence reigned for a long moment, and it took the team a moment to realize that the battle was over.

"Good job, Jenkins," Shepard said.

"Just shot my wad, Commander," Jenkins said, shaking his head. "I'm dry on missiles."

"Then we'll just have to make do without them," Shepard said, replacing the boxy energy magazine in his heavy particle rifle. "Let's move out."

They stepped past the armature's remains to the end of the tunnel and turned to a side door. Shepard brought up his omni-tool, then shook his head and frowned. "The encryption here's pretty basic. The geth should have had no problem hacking this. Eyes open, people. I smell a trap."

The team nodded and held their weapons at the ready. Shepard tapped a few commands into his omni-tool, and the door slid open, revealing...

"Ha!" Wrex barked. "Someone sure had a party down here."

The side tunnel was still quite spacious, a good thirty feet across and twenty feet high, but it wasn't the size of the corridor that held their attention. Everywhere they looked were wrecked geth platforms.

"You can say that again," Garrus agreed.

As they continued down the tunnel, the distinct lack of anything else - like the bodies of whoever the geth had been fighting - worried Shepard more than he cared to admit.

Ashley bent down by the top half of a geth juggernaut, running a finger along the smooth edge of the cut that bisected the geth platform. "These are laser burns, sir." She fingered one of the round holes that perforated it. "Mass accelerator rounds too."

"Earth weapons?"

"Doesn't look like it," she said, shaking her head. "This was a beam laser, not a pulse laser." Shepard nodded. Earth didn't manufacture beam lasers as small arms due to the difficulties in applying acceptable safety measures to prevent accidental discharge.

"Anyone else here besides me have a distinct case of the heebie jeebies?" Jenkins asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because nobody in their right mind would admit to that," Ashley snarked.

"With all due respect, Gunny, bite me."

"Why is it whenever anyone says 'with all due respect,' they really mean 'kiss my ass'?"

"Cut the chatter, you two," Shepard snapped, breaking up the verbal sniping. "Listen!"

K-chunk! Skreeeee! K-chunk! Skreeeee!

The team looked around, frowning. The sound was faint and distant... but coming closer. Shepard waved Ashley's half of the team to the right and led Garrus and Wrex to the left. The hallways were lined with doors, and while they didn't provide much cover, especially for the bulky Cycloners, the slight depressions into the walls around the doors was better than nothing.

They waited anxiously as something out of a nightmare dragged itself around the corner.

"My God," Shepard murmured, recognizing the black and red monstrosity. "That's a Haydonite war drone."

Were it fully erect, the Haydonite war drone would have stood ten feet tall, but this one stood at a lopsided angle, its stiff left leg dragging uselessly across the floor. Its arms resembled those of the Haydonite Infiltrator battloids, and they unfolded and planted themselves into the floor, providing a defensive barrier.

"Get down!" Shepard snapped, diving to the floor. The rest of the team followed suit not a moment too soon as a laser beam swept across the hallway at waist height, burning cleanly into the ancient alloyed walls. Shepard raised his arm and snapped off both his Scorpion IV micro-missiles with their guidance systems disengaged. It was a sure bet this thing was shadow cloaked.

Ball-turreted mass accelerators mounted in the drone's shield arms spat out, swatting one of the micro-missiles out of the air, but the other struck home, blowing off the end of its left arm and ruining the mass accelerator turret in it.

Jenkins's railgun spoke, the shell slamming into the war drone, crashing through armor, but it seemed not to notice as it went on the move again, dragging itself closer. The beam laser lanced out again and carved off the end of the railgun's barrel with ease.

"Damn it!" Jenkins swore.

Dark energy suddenly flared around the war drone, and the drone shuddered. Wrex snarled and gestured, the mnemonic sending the biotic wave in a different direction, and the war drone was rotated in place, turning toward its left. The krogan roared and charged, shotgun at the ready. Just as he brought the weapon up, the war drone's right arm snapped out and caught him across the chest, sending him flying backward.

Shepard noted Nirali crawling over to the krogan's position, then turned his attention back to the war drone. A concealed gun port in the war drone's side dilated open, and a ball-turreted cannon emerged and spat a high-velocity round that slammed into the lower half of his chest plate, crashing through his shields and knocking him back.

"Overloading!" Garrus called, hurling the tech mine out. The tech mine slowed to a halt, hovering beside the war drone, then pulsed with electricity which wreathed the drone for several seconds.

The war drone dragged itself around, and the pulse laser lashed out again, carving across Garrus's chest plate, ablating the outer layers easily, the flash-vaporization sending him stumbling back a step. The turian's expletive didn't translate properly, but he followed it up with, "We've got to take out that laser!"

"On it!" Ashley replied, firing her proton cannon with expert precision. The first two shots struck to little effect, and the third shot was blocked as the war drone raised its left arm defensively.

Suddenly, Shepard bolted forward and dove under its upraised arm, bringing his heavy particle rifle up. Pressing the muzzle against its underbelly, he drained the energy magazine into it at point blank range.

The silence that followed was positively thunderous before a creaking sound shattered it. Shepard's eyes widened, and he rolled over, firing his thrusters and shooting back up the hallway, his chest plate scraping across the floor as the war drone collapsed.

"Commander," Ashley blurted out, "are you insane? ! Uh, sir."

Rolling over onto his back, Shepard looked up at her. "I'm a Spectre, Gunny. I think that's part of the job description." He took a moment to catch his breath, then picked himself up. "Now, let's see what the hell that war drone was guarding."

After loading fresh energy magazines, the team advanced cautiously, weapons at the ready and uncomfortably aware of their lack of heavy ordnance. They found themselves walking past rows of war drones, folded up in storage, but despite their nerves, the drones remained inert. Finally, they reached a door at the far end which slid open. An asari woman and what appeared to be a mated Garudan pair stepped out.

"Oh, thank goodness!" the asari exclaimed, clearly relieved to see them. "I'm sorry about that war drone. When the geth attacked, I couldn't think of anything else to do."

"We have wounded," the male Garudan said.

"Bhatia?" Shepard nodded.

"Aye, Commander," the corpsman said, brushing past the squad and following the female Garudan.

Shepard turned to the asari and asked, "Are you Doctor Liara T'Soni?"

"Yes," the asari nodded, suddenly uncertain.

"Any idea why a rogue Spectre would want you dead?"

The asari woman blinked a few times before she whispered, "What? No, you must be mistaken. The geth-"

"We're not mistaken," Wrex broke in. "The man tried to hire me himself."

"I don't- that's ridiculous!" Liara said, shaking her head.

"That **would** explain the krogan," the male Garudan pointed out.

"What krogan?" Shepard asked.

"Doctor T'Soni is quite a gifted biotic," he said. "She crushed the krogan leading the geth in a singularity. He's the smear you're standing in right now."

* * *

A frustrated Shepard ignored the twinge in his ribs as he submitted his report to the Council; he had skipped the standard post-mission physical, reasoning that this was more important, but the frustration was palpable. Their best lead had hit a brick wall. Dr. T'Soni was an unremarkable scholar, a xenoarchaeologist specializing in Prothean studies filled with wild-eyed ideas on what caused their extinction. She didn't really have an explanation for the apparent Haydonite connection either. Still, he wasn't sure why, but her theory of a cycle of extinction somehow rang true for him, despite the lack of evidence.

He idly wondered if it had to do with that vision he saw when he encountered the Prothean beacon; Dr. T'Soni certainly seemed excited about it when she heard about it, even if she did make him feel like a bug under a microscope.

His computer chirped, marking an incoming message, and he brought it up. Reading through it, he nodded in satisfaction; the resupply request had been approved, and he had a window for arrival at Space Station Freedom. The Normandy hadn't been stocked for a long-term mission like this, so he had submitted the resupply request up the chain before heading out to Halla.

"Joker," he said, "set course for Space Station Freedom."

"You got it, Commander."

* * *

**Codex: Predator P Powered Armor**

In response to the Cyclones used by the UEDF during the Relay War, Armax Arsenal developed the new P line in their Predator series, building on the foundation of their already successful Predator H line of heavy armor. The Predator P is a suit of powered armor designed exclusively for turians, far and away superior to previous heavy hardsuits and comparable to Cyclone battloids. Like all hardsuits, the Predator P can be fully sealed against hostile environments.

The Predator P's armor is considerably thicker than the Predator H upon which it was based, and it is furnished with a refractive and ablative coating to disperse incoming directed energy weapons fire. Like the rest of the Predator series, the Predator P line has hardened circuits and an oversized eezo core, giving it superior kinetic barriers and resistance to tech and biotic abilities. The same eezo core has been adapted to provide other benefits as well, increasing melee striking power and lightening the wearer and his or her equipment. The latter effect means that, although the Predator P does not have actual thrusters, it still affords the wearer considerable agility.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Planning a little down time in the next chapter to give them some breathing room.


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Protoculture Effect (8/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya seethed.

_He's the captain,_ she reminded herself. _I'm sure he had good reason. Good reason to..._

She snarled and punched the bulkhead.

"Is something wrong, Tali?"

She spun and was thankful for her environment suit, as it hid her blush. "Oh! Commander! I, uh..." She floundered. As a quarian, she found herself in a serious quandary regarding the situation. On one hand, Shepard was the Normandy's captain, his actual rank aside, and to a quarian, the captain's word was law. But on the other...

Her gaze drifted to the console sitting in the cargo bay.

Shepard followed her gaze, then nodded in understanding. "So, you've met Bishop."

"Bishop" was the name taken by the AI Shepard had found skimming credits off the Quasar machines. As a Spectre and the Normandy's skipper, he had gained the authority he needed to grant it asylum, something his conscience had required of him. It made this confrontation inevitable, but he had hoped to put it off until later.

Much, much later. Tali had a habit of putting him off-balance.

"You are... aware of what quarians think of AIs, yes?" she asked delicately, still not able to bring herself to outright accuse the ship's skipper.

"Yes, I've heard."

"Then why have you granted that... that... that **thing** asylum?"

"I didn't exactly ask for it, Tali."

"You could have told it no," she pointed out. "From what I understand, you **did** tell it no."

"And just abandon a sapient intelligence to prejudice and discrimination?" he fired back. "Like we could have done to your people?"

The shot was below the belt, and he knew it.

It worked, too.

That didn't stop her from slapping him.

Shepard slowly turned his head to face the quarian again, ignoring the shocked looks from the other crewmembers present in the cargo bay. "I deserved that," he admitted. "I should have told you about it, been up front with you." His voice hardened. "But there are some things you need to understand, Miss Zorah. Humanity accepts your people, your goal to reclaim your homeworld, because we've been there, a hundred and fifty years ago, when Earth was conquered by the invid. But in the end, freedom is the right of **all** sapient beings: levo, dextro, or digital. Is that understood?"

"Y-yes, Captain," she stuttered, her word choice underscoring just how rattled she was.

"And Tali? If you **ever** hit me again in public, I **will** throw your ass in the brig. I like you, but this is **my** ship, and I have to maintain discipline."

The quarian nodded. Satisfied that he'd made his point, Shepard turned and headed over to the console that housed Bishop.

"Hey," he said, "how are you doing?"

"Satisfactory," Bishop replied.

"We'll be entering Alliance space soon," Shepard said. "Once we get to Space Station Freedom, I'll pass you over to Immigration Services, and they'll take it from there."

"Thank you, Commander."

"I hope you don't take anything she said personally."

"She is quarian," the AI said. "Given the history, her reactions are understandable, if irrational."

"Thanks for understanding," Shepard said. Bishop declined to respond. Shaking his head, the commander turned away and continued on his way. He made a habit of making the rounds on the ship; it helped him know his ship, inside and out.

"Shepard."

He turned and greeted the krogan, "Wrex."

The battlemaster walked up and looked down at him. "You look different without your armor," he noted. "Smaller."

"Don't underestimate me," Shepard warned, a wry smile on his face.

"Ha! I won't," Wrex assured him. "Like I said, you've got a quad on you, Shepard. That... that 'Haydonite war drone' you called it? That was glorious. I haven't had a fight like that in centuries." He rubbed his abdomen. "I can still feel that punch it gave me."

"Well, I hope you don't mind, Wrex, but I hope we don't run into too many of those," Shepard said. "That thing was half-wrecked, and it still nearly killed us all. Not exactly an experience I'd care to repeat any time soon."

"Bah, you humans," Wrex snorted. "What is life without challenges like that?"

"A lot longer," Shepard deadpanned.

"A near-death experience now and then is nice," Wrex retorted. "Keeps the mind sharp."

Chuckling, Shepard shook his head and continued on his way. At least Wrex was enjoying himself. He clambered down one level to the MARDET armory, wincing a bit as his ribs protested again. As he stepped off the ladder and turned, he froze.

Ashley turned away from her project at the sound of footsteps on the access ladder and snapped to attention. "Sir!"

"Is... is something wrong, Shepard?" Liara asked.

"Uh, no. No, of course not," Shepard said, shaking his head. "As you were, Gunny." The gunnery sergeant cocked an eyebrow curiously, and as she noted his gaze, her lips twisted into a sly smile. She was still weighing the pros and cons of teasing her commanding officer when he asked, "Would you excuse us, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Of-of course."

"Don't worry," Ashley said, giving Liara a reassuring nod. "I think we've got the final adjustments done. Just walk around, get used to the armor, and we'll get you checked out on a Cyclone tomorrow."

She stepped aside with Shepard, who pursed his lips and asked, "All right, Gunny, would you care to explain why you're fitting a suit of CVR for Doctor T'Soni?"

"She's volunteered to help with the mission, sir, to join the ground team," she answered, clearly anxious. "With her biotics, she'd be an incredible asset to the team. I-I cleared this with Ka- Lieutenant Alenko, sir. He said you'd be okay with it."

"I am," Shepard assured her. "Just... surprised. I haven't gotten around to checking the daily reports yet." He looked back at the asari archaeologist and sighed, running a hand through his buzz cut. "I just wish I knew why Saren wants her dead. Train her well, Ash. I won't take her on-mission unless she passes at **least** Basic Quals on a Cyke, both modes."

"Got it, Commander," she said, snapping to attention and saluting.

Shepard frowned as she turned back to Liara. What was that he'd heard in her voice? Dismissing the errant thought, he headed further down the corridor to the maintenance and repair bay. Laid down on the "operating table" was Garrus's Predator P, and Garrus and Jenkins were going over it with molecular fusion welders, patching the damage the armor had taken on Halla.

"Are you sure there's no way we can mount one or two of those missile launchers on this thing?"

"Yes." From the sounds of it, Jenkins had answered the question multiple times. "Without a control interface and full sensor suite, it would be worthless."

"Then how would we do that?"

Deciding not to disturb them, Shepard left with a slight chuckle as Jenkins growled something under his breath. Time to check on the veritech fighters.

Another ladder found himself stepping past Midnight's disassembled frame. Alice's crew was working on it, but the Senior Chief herself was busy... "discussing" with Kaidan his treatment of White Star. Shepard quickly turned and left. There were some things it was simply best a ship's commanding officer not be witness to.

"**There** you are, Commander!"

Shepard paused as HA1c Bhatia slid down the access ladder in front of him. She turned and glared at him, hands on her hips.

"Is something wrong, Corpsman?"

"I've been looking all over for you, sir," she said. "Doctor Chakwas says you pushed your post-mission physical back a day and then skipped it."

"I'm fine," he said, trying to wave it off.

"Uh uh," she retorted, shaking her head. "Doctor's orders."

For a moment, he considered resisting further, but the look in her eyes dissuaded him. "Fine," he relented.

They stood for a moment.

"You gonna move?" he asked, nodding to the ladder behind her.

"No, sir," she said. "I saw that hit you took. We're taking the elevator."

Shepard suppressed a groan. The cargo elevator was slow as molasses.

* * *

"There," Dr. Chakwas said, "was that so painful?"

Shepard kept his mouth shut. She had sent Corpsman Bhatia after him this time. If he said anything, she might recruit others as well. Instead, he simply stood and left, stepping out of sickbay, where he saw Garrus munching on something.

"Jenkins kick you out?"

"Yeah," the turian groused. "Apparently, I was distracting him." He speared another morsel with his fork and popped it in his mouth.

Shepard frowned. _Wait a minute..._

"Garrus, what are you eating?" he asked.

"The breen you had in the fridge," the turian said, gesturing with his fork to the galley. "I'm surprised you were able to find any so far from Palaven. It costs a small fortune on the Citadel."

"Um, Garrus," Shepard said, "the only dextro food we have on board is the flavored nutrient paste we stocked up on for Tali. Those are Swedish meatballs. Human food. **Levo** food."

The turian stopped chewing and stared. "...what?"

Shepard stepped back and reopened the door to sickbay. "Doctor Chakwas!"

* * *

Shepard shook his head as he considered the situation. Once again, they had no more solid leads, but there were rumors on the extranet about geth attacks on some remote colonies, and if true, FAdm Hackett would be able to brief him. Garrus was still down in Medical, getting his stomach pumped to clear his system of the levo food he had indulged in, and Liara was making progress in her training with Ashley.

So lost in thought was he that he almost missed the Normandy making the last relay jump to the Arcturus system and Space Station Freedom. Space folds were faster and greater practical range than the regular (that is, eezo-based) FTL and also had the advantage of being able to carry nearby smaller craft with the folding ship without actually docking, but it lacked the tactical utility of standard FTL, and relay jumps - being instantaneous - were still faster, which was why most modern Alliance ships, including the Normandy, were equipped to travel by all three.

"Freedom Control to Normandy, transmitting approach vector."

"Approach path received, Control," Joker answered.

* * *

Resupplying a warship was always hectic, doubly so for one built with top secret technology on a high priority mission. Fortunately, as a civilian, Tali herself wasn't part of the rank and file and therefore had a bit more leeway. A bit.

Enough to pick up this.

"You're sure they will work?" she asked.

"As sure as I can be without testing them out," Chris Tanner nodded reassuringly. Chris and Tali weren't really very close, but given the mission she found herself on, she had felt this course of action was prudent, if not necessary. As for Chris... he was an armorer and found the challenge exciting. "Go ahead," he said, "put one on. We've still got that clean room you bunked in before Normandy's shakedown, and I sterilized it twice."

"Perhaps I will," she mused aloud. "It would only be prudent to make sure they work properly, after all." She shot him a sly look. "And of course, you want to see your handiwork in action, right?"

"That I do, ma'am."

* * *

1stLt Kaidan Alenko sat in the Officer's Club, glad to finally catch a break to fuel his biotic metabolism. As he wolfed down his third serving, he was dimly aware of someone taking a seat across from him. He looked up and nearly had a heart attack.

"Relax, Lieutenant," UEMC Brigadier General (BGen) Kahoku said. "Carry on."

"Uh, sorry, sir," Kaidan apologized. "Resupply stop. It's been hectic. You know how it is."

"I know," Kahoku said, nodding pensively.

They lapsed into silence as Kaidan continued his meal at a slower pace. The lieutenant wondered just why the Force Recon one-star would stop to have lunch with him. Kahoku had taken him under his wing, so to speak, after Akuze, but it was a distant sort of mentorship that didn't generally include shared meals at the O Club. Something had to be up, something unofficial... or so black it might as well be unofficial. And it had to be Marine business, or the general would be talking to the commander.

"Your ship's on detached duty, right, Lieutenant?"

"I can't say, sir."

To anyone else, it was simply that: "I can't say." To the Force Recon general, though, it was an affirmative and a request to not ask any further.

* * *

LtCmdr Shepard strode through the halls of Space Station Freedom, his destination firmly in mind. It had been a stressful day, transferring Bishop to Immigration Services' custody, not to mention Commodore (Cdre) Mikhailovich's snap inspection. Still, the resupply was well under way, and the crew didn't need him looking over their shoulders, so that was one less worry for him to be concerned about while he responded to the summons he had received.

"The admiral's expecting you, Commander."

"Thank you, Petty Officer," Shepard said. He entered Admiral Hackett's office and snapped to attention. "Lieutenant Commander John Shepard, reporting as ordered, sir."

"At ease," the admiral greeted him. "Good job on Halla. You saved lives, even if we still don't know what Saren's up to." He rose from behind his desk and presented him with small case. When Shepard opened it, his eyebrows shot to his hairline. Inside lay a rank patch with four thick grey stripes in contrast to the three he wore now, and pinned to the top were two sets of three pips each, the matching collar insignia of a full commander.

"Congratulations, Commander," Hackett said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me," he said. "You've earned it. I've also found you a new XO and some new leads."

"Respectfully, sir, I don't need a new XO. Commander K'Dar and Lieutenant Pressly..."

"K'Dar's an engineer, not a bridge officer," Hackett interrupted, "and Pressly doesn't have the seniority or the time in grade for promotion. I'm assigning Lieutenant Commander Jane Hunter as your new XO."

"Hunter?" he repeated, surprised. He knew the name, all right - few in the UEDF didn't - but it wasn't just the history of the Robotech Wars that came to his mind, but the very person Hackett was speaking of, herself a descendent of the famous Admirals Hunter. Auburn hair, green eyes, a lithe grace... he hadn't seen her since the Academy. He nodded. "She's a fine officer."

"I had a feeling you'd agree," Hackett said, not quite smirking.

Shepard coughed. That had been a long time ago. "You mentioned some new leads, sir?"

"Yes," Hackett nodded, picking up an OSD and handing it to him. "Geth activity in the Armstrong Nebula and Attican Beta."

"The Armstrong Nebula, sir?" Shepard frowned. "That's in the Skyllian Verge, isn't it? We don't have any colonies there, do we?"

"No, Commander," Hackett answered. "Which is why you'll be working with the batarians on this."

Shepard tried to hide his distaste. After what happened on Mindoir and Elysium, the idea of working **with** batarians was anathema to him. The admiral's next words proved he had failed miserably.

"Try to stay professional, Commander," Hackett warned. "They're not too happy about you being involved either, but you're a Spectre now, so they don't have a choice in the matter. We do. It's either work with them, let them handle it, or start a war, and the third option is most assuredly **not** acceptable, Commander. With the geth attacking, we can't afford to open up a second front. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, sir."

"Good," Hackett said. "Dismissed."

* * *

**Codex: Region: The Skyllian Verge**

The Skyllian Verge is a section of space situated between the United Earth Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony, which resulted in intense competition between humans and batarians to colonize, develop, and exploit the planets within during the early 2160s, to the point that the Batarian Hegemony petitioned the Citadel Council to declare the Verge an area of batarian interest, a petition the Council had granted, but which the UEA had ignored, refusing to recognize the Citadel Council's authority at the time.

The tensions between the United Earth Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony eventually culminated in the Skyllian Blitz in 2176, a massive assault on the human colony of Elysium by pirates and slavers based within the Verge and rumored to be funded by backers within the Hegemony. This, in turn, triggered a two-year punitive expedition by the United Earth Defense Force into the Verge, thoroughly purging the lawless region of criminal activity before withdrawing to human-controlled space.

After the Haven Accords shortly thereafter, the UEA tacitly ceased further expansion into the Verge and restricted its activities within the Verge to the defense of existing human colonies. The Verge remains largely unsettled, and although human colonies within the Verge are well-defended and the Batarian Hegemony makes a token effort to patrol the area, the UEDF's withdrawal from most of the area has resulted in a resurgence of criminal activity, and it is still seen as a lawless area, with pirates, slavers, and mercenary bands operating freely.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

So... sharp left turn here. I hope no one saw all that coming.


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Protoculture Effect (9/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

The newly-minted Commander (Cmdr) John Shepard, UES-SOC, Citadel Spectre, stood pensively in the Normandy's rear observation deck. The upcoming mission had him tied up in knots. He **hated** batarians. Intellectually, he knew they weren't all the same, but after what he'd seen, it was... difficult, to say the least.

"John."

He turned. "Jane."

His blue eyes met her green. LtCmdr Jane Hunter, UES-SOC, stood before him. She wore her uniform easily, and it did little to hide her natural grace. She gave him a faint smile. "It's been a long time."

"Not since the Academy," John agreed. "Funny how things turn out," he added after a long moment. "If you had come visit while on leave like you'd promised, it might be you in charge of this mission. Lord knows we could have used your skills during the Blitz."

Her lips curled into a smile, and merriment dancing in her eyes. "I think I came out ahead in the end. I don't have to deal with the Council."

He groaned. "Don't rub it in."

"And then there's that statue on Elysium..."

"Stop!" he protested, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "Stop it, please!"

She smirked but relented and changed the subject. "In the continued interest of catching up, whatever happened to Jim? I would have thought he'd be at the center of action at Elysium, but I hadn't heard a peep out of him since." An orphan from Earth who enlisted to escape gangs like the 10th Street Reds he had run with, James Farmer had been the third member of their little band of miscreants in the Robotech Military Academy.

John sobered quickly. "He was transferred away from Elysium just before the Blitz," he answered. "His unit was ordered to investigate a colony we'd lost contact with. On Akuze."

Jane's face paled. "Akuze? He was there?" She frowned. "Lieutenant Alenko was there too, wasn't he?"

"The sole survivor," John confirmed. "I... haven't really spoken to him about it. I don't think he realizes I knew Jim."

There was a long moment of silence.

"What about you?" he asked gently. "I heard Torfan was rough."

After the Blitz, Jane had volunteered for Operation Clean Sweep and led a platoon at Torfan, but Major Kyle had held her platoon back from the final push until the last minute, and Ashley led her decapitated platoon down to take the last strong point on Torfan.

"It was, John," she said quietly. "We lost a lot of good people there."

Wordlessly, the two turned to gaze out at the stars and simply stood in companionable silence.

"By the way, here," John said, pulling out an OSD. "We'll be working in batarian territory, so I picked this up from Earth Intelligence."

"EIA's latest hits?" she noted as she inserted the OSD into her omni-tool and brought up the data. "Thanks."

* * *

Shepard was standing behind Joker in the cockpit when they arrived rather than at his command position at the rear of the bridge. He didn't much care for the turian bridge design.

"We're in orbit over Casbin, Commander," Joker reported.

"Sensor contact!" Operations Specialist Second Class (OS2) Monica Negulesco reported. "Heavy cruiser, unknown configuration. It's broadcasting a batarian IFF!"

"Going evasive," Joker called.

"Don't bother," Shepard said. "That's our liaison for this mission."

Joker paused, then turned and stared at Shepard. "You're not serious, Commander. Working with batarians?"

"Unfortunately, Joker, I am," Shepard said with a grimace.

"Incoming transmission, skipper," Operations Specialist Third Class (OS3) Alexei Dubyansky reported.

"Bring it up," Shepard ordered. "This is Commander Shepard, Citadel Spectre and captain of the United Earth Ship Normandy."

"We copy, Shepard. This is Captain Taban of the Khar'shan State Ship Ashar. I've been ordered to escort and support your investigation of the geth incursion into the Skyllian Verge."

For what it was worth, this Captain Taban didn't sound any happier about the situation than Shepard was.

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll manage," Shepard said flatly.

"I'm afraid I must insist on at least sending along an observer," Taban replied, his voice strained. "One of our SIU commandos, perhaps."

"Fine," Shepard agreed reluctantly. "Send him over."

* * *

SIU. The Special Intervention Unit. Shepard had never run into them before - not directly, at least - and though he'd killed more than a few batarian pirates and slavers who claimed to have retired from it, he was certain it was largely bullshit, the sort of self-aggrandizement and boasting criminals were prone to engage in. Their brutal training regimen - with a mortality rate of over 15% by EIA's best estimate - meant those who made it into the SIU had to be among the toughest bastards in the galaxy. Still, how they compared to SOC, especially N7 rates like himself and Jane, remained to be seen.

As he headed for the mecha bay, he considered who to bring along for this mission. Wrex and Garrus could probably keep themselves under control, as could Bhatia and Jenkins, but Ash was right out. Someone who fought at Torfan wasn't likely to keep a level head, and Shepard wasn't sure he could trust himself either. Liara still hadn't qualified on a Cyclone yet, and...

He paused and tilted his head curiously. "Tali? Is that you?"

The quarian turned. "Yes, Commander."

Shepard frowned. She was in her ever-present environmental suit, but clearly, it had been modified. He couldn't see the modifications directly, but only because they were hidden by the Cyclone wrapped around her. Which shouldn't have been possible.

"What's going on?"

"When we stopped by Space Station Freedom after Eden Prime, I asked one of the armorers if he could help me, and he took it as a challenge," the quarian girl explained. "He modified two of my environmental suits to interface with Cyclones. I want to help. Your team is lacking a dedicated tech specialist."

Shepard closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Talk to Gunny Williams. You'll need to qualify on a Cyclone first, same rules as Doctor T'Soni."

The quarian nodded. "Understood, Commander."

The Spectre just shook his head and continued on his way. The day he figured out this crew was probably the day he'd have to resign his commission on mental health grounds.

They were trying, at least. Whether they were trying to drive him to a Section Eight or something else was another matter entirely. He decided to let them be. As long as no one started drawing up designs for Wrex, anyway. A kroganized Cyclone was where he drew the line.

_Great, now I'm gonna be distracted the whole mission,_ Shepard thought sourly as his mind conjured up images of Wrex in an oversized Cyclone. He slid down the access ladder into the mecha bay just in time to see the small batarian shuttle slide in and land in the cleared area with expert precision. The shuttle powered down, and the hatch swung open, revealing a black-clad batarian woman.

Shepard stepped forward and held out a hand. "Commander Shepard, United Earth Spacy, Citadel Council Spectre."

"Lieutenant Kilika," she replied, eyeing his hand suspiciously. Her voice was guttural and husky. "Batarian Hegemony Special Intervention Unit."

Shepard let his hand drop and eyed the batarian SIU commando distrustfully, analyzing what he saw. She was definitely fit, as to be expected, her figure accentuated by her suit, which was light and flexible, hugging her body and giving her full freedom of movement. Still, it was hard to judge; something about the matte black hardsuit made his eyes want to just slide right off it, and though it couldn't possibly offer much damage resistance, he suspected it would have powerful kinetic barriers to compensate. As for weapons, she had what appeared to be a folded up sniper rifle strapped to her back and a pistol of some sort in a hip holster; sheathed along her forearms were a pair of knives with foot-long straight blades, probably double-edged.

_Great,_ he thought, his hand twitching for his sidearm. _An assassin. Why am I not surprised?_

"Let's make one thing clear," Shepard said, jabbing a finger at her. "You're here as an observer, over my objections. This is **my** operation. You fall behind, you get left. You get in the way, and I'll kill you myself."

"Of course you would, 'hero,'" she replied acidly.

* * *

It was easy to find the geth outpost. As a classic "pre-garden" terrestrial world with the beginnings of plant life on it, Casbin was listed as a Sanctuary World by the Citadel Council, and not even the aggressively expansive Batarian Hegemony were willing to cross the Council over it. If it weren't for Shepard's Spectre credentials, even landing on the planet would have gotten the ground team locked up for years.

There was only one source of comm transmissions on the entire planet, narrowing down their search considerably.

Shepard had parked the Mako some distance away and was now observing the geth outpost. It was fortified, with turrets and watchtowers backed up by a trio of armatures.

"Shepard to White Star," Shepard called. "Bring the rain."

"White Star copies," Kaidan replied. "AMTAG inbound."

The Advanced Multiple Target Air-to-Ground missile - aka AMTAG - was designed to suppress ground forces. The missile flew overhead, popping over the mountains that surrounded the geth output before releasing its payload. Two dozen submunitions burst out, active sensors flaring. So-called "brilliant bomb" guidance computers analyzed the area and selected their targets, and the independently guided submunitions rained down on the geth, carrying their cobalt warheads with deadly precision.

Kilika snorted. "You humans have no sense of subtlety."

"We're dealing with the geth and a rogue Spectre," Shepard pointed out. "Subtlety was never in the cards."

"Subtlety was out of the question once **you** showed up, human," she retorted scornfully.

"You've never seen us try and be subtle. We're surprisingly good at it."

"I'll believe it if I ever see it."

Shepard held his tongue. She was obviously never going to let him win, let alone have the last word.

"We need to get moving," he said instead.

* * *

Clearing out the geth outpost had been a simple affair. Whatever the geth had been anticipating, it wasn't a frontal assault by heavily-armed Cycloners. This did nothing to ease their anxiety, though; they still had a whole cluster to investigate.

Their next stop was Antibaar in the Tereshkova system, a frozen ball of rock and ice. Like Casbin, it was uninhabited. Almost.

"Commander, I'm picking up a faint transmission a couple of klicks from the main transmission source," Kaidan reported.

"Drop us off," Shepard said, "then circle around and check it out."

"Aye, Commander."

The Mako plowed into the snow, but Taylor turned into the skid and quickly regained control. They approached the suspected geth outpost carefully. Shepard wanted to scout it out while they had the chance; he wasn't about to assault it without having some idea what they were up against. Before long, they were on a ridge overlooking the geth outpost.

At his order, the team clambered out of the Mako, leaving Taylor and Garrus once again manning the IFV. Shepard brought up the zoom on his integrated helmet-mounted display and scanned the facility. The central structure had what looked like a retractable roof, possibly for airlift access, as well as numerous smaller doors. Three guard towers surrounded the building, connected by waist-high portable metal walls which obviously served as semi-mobile cover. He then focused his attention on the enemy forces. "Doesn't look too tough," he murmured. "Snipers and rocket troopers."

"Sir, I can't see anything through this snow storm," Kaidan reported. "Gonna have to go lower."

"Be careful, Lieutenant."

"Will do, Comma- oh, shit!"

Shepard turned as the sound of explosions cut through the icy wind. "Alenko, report!"

"Sorry, Commander. Goddamned thresher maw nearly took a bite out of my fighter."

"Did you get it?"

"With the amount of ordnance I dropped, sir, I better have."

"Just... how **much** ordnance did you drop, Lieutenant?" Shepard asked with a frown.

"Umm, all of it, sir," was Kaidan's sheepish response. "Except the Switchblades."

Shepard mentally ran through the list, and his jaw went slack. "You unloaded two AMTAGs, six Chasms, and seventy-two Piranhas on a **biological?**"

"And four five-hundred-kilo gravity bombs, sir."

Shepard closed his eyes, then added, "Don't you start, batarian."

"Start what? Your people prove my case well enough without my input. Shall we, Commander?"

Shepard bit back a snarl. "Wrex, you have point," he said. "Jenkins, you have drag. Taylor, Garrus, keep the Mako on the ridge and provide us with heavy support. Bhatia, with me. Kilika..." he paused as his gaze met the blank visor of the batarian commando's helmet, "...stay out of the way."

Kilika vanished into the swirling snow, and the rest of the team fell into formation. They were nearly at the bottom of the ridge before the geth took notice of them, opening fire. Shepard trusted his team to take care of themselves as he fired his thrusters, getting some distance so a single rocket didn't take them all out. One of the side doors in the central structure opened, and geth troopers began streaming out.

Shepard's blood ran cold as he spotted a contingent of taller geth platforms in the crowd. Juggernauts... and a geth prime.

Wrex charged straight toward the barriers, crashing through and blasting his shotgun at the rocket trooper crouched behind it, and the nearest guard tower toppled under fire from the Mako.

"Jenkins! Garrus!" Shepard called. "Thin the crowd!"

Hypersonic rounds the size of a grain of sand from the Mako's minigun began stitching across the geth formation, and salvo after salvo of missiles streaked out from Jenkins's Cyclone. Shepard himself targeted the geth prime with his Scorpions, while Bhatia kept up a steady stream of suppressing fire.

Shepard never saw the rocket coming. All he knew was that, one minute, he was cutting down geth troopers, and the next, his shields were gone, and he was on his ass, looking up at the geth prime, which was firing its pulse rifle over him, presumably at some other member of the team.

"Oh, f*ck," he swore as he brought his particle rifle up and opened fire, stripping away its kinetic barriers as it pointed its pulse rifle at him. His sensors told him the story. Its shields, already lowered from his Scorpions, would drop just as it lined up its shot.

He was dead, and he knew it.

Just its shields collapsed, a shimmering figure leaped onto its back, driving a pair of long-bladed daggers into its shoulders through seams in the armor. The figure drew back the daggers and somersaulted over the geth prime's flashlight head, sheathing the two blades as she landed just past Shepard's head. Kicking off the ground, she leaped back at the geth prime, drawing the pistol at her hip and ramming it in its face. The staccato beat of full-auto mass accelerator fire intermingled with the sound of shattering electronics as the geth prime fell back.

"Okay," Shepard admitted. "I'm impressed."

Kilika leaned down, glaring at him. "Try not to die on my watch, Spectre. It would not do any favors for my career."

_Well,_ he thought as he picked himself up, _it's nice to know where we stand._

The team gathered at the door and paused to do an ammo check. Shepard still had eight Recluse-Ds in his GR-198 hip launchers, but that was about all for expendable ordnance. Once the other reports came in...

"Jenkins," he sighed, "you really need to learn some fire discipline."

"Sorry, sir," the lance corporal apologized.

"We've got some spare Recluses in the Mako," Shepard said. "Restock, and we'll move in."

"Aye, Commander," Jenkins said, snapping to attention before turning to the Mako.

He was halfway into reloading when they heard the roof of the central structure grinding open. A geth platform - some sort of white-armored variant of an armature - rose to its full height and stepped over the building's wall, swinging its glowing head around before looking down at them. Shepard looked up and met its impersonal gaze.

"We're gonna need bigger guns."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

So. Batarian squad member. Thoughts?


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Protoculture Effect (10/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Kilika was a Special Intervention Unit commando. She was a soldier, a sniper, and a spy. And when the Hegemony needed it, an assassin. She was trained in stealth and intrusion, to kill quickly and efficiently with rifle or blade with equal proficiency.

She was most definitely **not** trained in demolitions.

The review of her skillset ran through her mind as she considered the massive threat looming before her. From second-hand reports passed on by the Turian Heirarchy, the Batarian Hegemony knew about the so-called "mecha" the humans used. A great many engineers and military theorists tried to envision what those machines - and what fighting them - would be like.

As she looked up at the colossus towering over her, Kilika strongly suspected that it would be an awful like what she was facing right now.

Her thoughts were broken as something large, heavy, and angular crashed into her, knocking her aside just as the colossus opened fire with its secondary guns; at this close range, its siege pulse cannon was uselessly unwieldy. She shook her head and frowned at Commander Shepard, who had tackled her out of the way.

"Hey, I owed you," he said. "Now, **move!**" He shoved her, and she stumbled away as the geth colossus unleashed a siege pulse. Shepard made it two steps before it struck the ground behind him and sent him flying.

The commander's world went black.

* * *

"-mander, do you copy?" Kaidan Alenko's voice screamed in his ear.

Shepard's head was ringing as his HMD - scratch that, **part** of his HMD - came into focus. He shook his head clear and realized he was lying face down in the dirt, and his face plate had been shattered, only some of it remaining in place and functional. He rolled over onto his back and noted that he was a considerable distance from where he had been, drag marks in the snow showing where someone had pulled him behind the cover of the Mako. The fact that the Mako was on fire and apparently abandoned did not put his mind at ease.

"I... I copy, Lieutenant," he said.

"I don't know how long I can hold this thing in place, sir, and I can't get a fix on it with my particle guns."

Shepard looked up and saw the geth colossus wrestling with the battloid-mode Thor. It looked like a stalemate, and the small arms fire coming from ground level didn't seem to have much effect. He frowned, then climbed onto the Mako. The particle cannon was slagged, its barrel melted, but that wasn't what he was looking for. He popped the hatch and dug around.

Disc grenades were similar to tech mines. They had a small eezo core and an encrypted receiver that gave its user a limited ability to control it with an omni-tool after throwing it. The eezo core also allowed the grenade to hover at a set altitude before detonating.

What he intended to do with it required nothing quite so fancy.

Scooping up the grenades, he charged the two wrestling titans, firing his thrusters and hopping up onto the colossus's back. He attached one of the grenades to the colossus's armor, fixing it in place, then slid back down and detonated it. The colossus let out a shriek, an alien sound that resembled nothing so much as a cross between tearing sheet metal and electronic feedback. It shook, trying to dislodge the Cyclone-clad human clinging to its back, but he managed to fire his thrusters and then grab hold of the breach he'd made in its armor.

He tossed the other five grenades into the breach, let go, and detonated them while he was still in freefall.

"That's it," he said, breaking the silence that followed. "From here on out, we're carrying demo charges on every ground mission."

* * *

Shepard was hard-pressed to keep his feet steady as he boarded the Normandy. For once, he decided, he wasn't going to try avoiding the post-mission physical. That colossus had rung his bell but good. Reconfiguring his Typhoon back to hovercycle mode, he paused to pull his helmet off. His hair clung to his head, glued in place by a mixture of sweat and something else.

He heard a gasp. "Shepard!"

He looked up and frowned. "What's wrong, Tali?"

"You... you're bleeding," the quarian said, pointing a hesitant finger at his forehead. "It... it's green."

"Huh?" he blinked and ran a gloved hand across his forehead, noting the green smear that appeared on it. "Oh, that." He shrugged. "That's easy enough to explain. I'm one quarter invid. On my mother's side."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "Invid have an uncanny knack for making different biochemistries work. The asari can eat their hearts out."

"Huh?"

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Human idiom." He winced and stopped shaking his head. "And possibly a concussion."

* * *

Shepard stirred. It took him a moment to recognize where he was, the Normandy's medical bay. He looked around, trying to identify what had awakened him.

"Kaidan," he greeted the lieutenant. "How are you feeling?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that, sir?"

Shepard sat up, then paused, letting his head clear. He looked at Kaidan and pointed out, "I'm not the one who nearly got eaten by my worst nightmare, Lieutenant."

Kaidan was too disciplined to flinch, but Shepard could feel the flare of dark energy. "I'm fine, sir."

Shepard considered that, then let it slide. "What did you find down there, anyway?"

"Looked like an independent survey or salvage team," Kaidan said. "Wounds showed signs of geth weapons fire. The geth, in turn, were trashed by the thresher maw."

Shepard sighed and nodded carefully. "Understood. Listen, Lieutenant, Doc says I'm off-duty while I recover from this concussion. I know it's going to be rough, new XO and all, but I trust Jane - that is, Commander Hunter - and I'm going to be relying on you to keep the crew from doing something stupid. To ease the transition, as it were."

"Will do, Skipper," Kaidan said. He had to give the commander credit; he certainly recovered quickly.

* * *

"This is **not** how I wanted to take my first command," LtCmdr Jane Hunter commented idly as she leaned against the railing near the CIC's command post.

"I get the feeling you knew the commander, ma'am," Kaidan said.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Back in the Academy, we were tight: me, John, and Jimmy Farmer."

"The Three Musketeers?"

"Hardly," Jane snorted, shaking her head. "More like the Three Terrors. We hogged the simulators and rode the training mecha to the breaking point. We just kept pushing the envelope."

"Wait," Kaidan frowned. "Wait, wait, wait. The Three Terrors? Of the Great Futility Raid?"

"Do not speak of that ever again," she warned him with a glare.

Kaidan snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Prep your fighter," she added. "You'll be providing the ground team with air support."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, turning to leave. He was halfway to the mecha bay when the thought struck him. _Jimmy Farmer?_ he thought. _It... no, it couldn't be. The commander would have mentioned that, wouldn't he?_

For her part, Jane was looking over the readings distastefully. They were in orbit over the planet Maji, and there were signs of geth activity, which mean sending a ground team to investigate. John didn't play by the same rulebook as most Spacy officers, and neither did she. They were Special Operations Command N7 operatives, which meant that, unlike most Spacy officers, they got their hands dirty. Add in John's new status as a Spectre, and it was inevitable that he would take a more hands-on approach than was typical in the Spacy, which in turn led to the concussion that kept him confined to Medical.

Still, it left her with a headache. The ground team was short a team leader.

She couldn't, in good conscience, go and lead the ground team herself while John was still in Medical; that would be dereliction of duty, even if it technically fell within regs. The ground team itself, with its multi-species composition, required a delicate touch, which eliminated most of the regular Marine officers. Gunny Williams was a capable NCO, but with the batarian involvement and her own personal history, she was out of the question. John had benched her on the Casbin and Antibaar missions for that very reason.

Kaidan was a good officer, but his file indicated he was most comfortable in the cockpit of his fighter, and she was left wondering just how badly Akuze had really affected him. That left Taylor as the only remaining officer or senior NCO with experience dealing with the ground team John had assembled. Taylor got along well enough with Vakarian, bonding over the Mako, which was now undergoing repairs, but she wasn't sure he could deal with the krogan without getting his head bitten off, nevermind the batarian.

She could bench John's unconventional multi-species team and send a squad from the Normandy's regular Marine detachment - it was an option she was seriously considering - but the fact was, John's mismatched ground team was simply **better** than any regular Marine squad. If she had her druthers, she'd send an N7 SOC squad... but she and John were the only N7s on board. The best they had was an N5 Marine Force Recon team.

In the end, she decided, it would be Taylor's decision. If he felt he was up to it, he would lead John's ground team.

* * *

"Lead that crazy crew?" Jacob blurted out. "Uh, no offense, ma'am."

"None taken, Lieutenant," Jane said. "I needed your honest opinion on the matter. Dismissed."

She had certainly gotten it. She just hoped the Force Recon team could handle it. They were good - anyone willing to drop into a combat zone from low orbit had to have a pair - but the team was small, and they didn't know what forces the geth had on Maji.

* * *

"Hey, Skipper."

John looked up as GySgt Ashley Williams entered the sickbay. He'd read her file, and it made him glad to have her aboard, potential psychological consequences of Eden Prime notwithstanding. "Shit hot" - which she had to be to make E-7 in only nine years from an early enlistment - didn't begin to describe it: She'd aced her fit-reps every time, and she had only two black marks on her record, an incident with a Westerlund News reporter and the heavy losses her unit had taken at Torfan. The inquiry board had deemed those losses unavoidable, however, and she'd even received a medal for her actions during the incident. Still, he was a bit worried. She was pushing herself hard, and it wasn't going to be pretty when she finally burned out.

"Hello, Gunny," he said. "What brings you here?"

"Just checking up on you," she answered. "Getting a bit antsy lately, lot of time on my hands."

"You **know** why I benched you, Ash," he said, answering the unspoken accusation.

She ground her teeth and looked away. "I don't get it, Skipper. Why are we kowtowing to these... these **aliens?**"

John cocked an eyebrow. "You have a problem with non-humans, Ash?"

"What?" the NCO blurted out in surprise, looking back at him in shock. "No, sir! Karbarrans, invid, zentraedi, quarians, I've got no problem with any of them. Hell, I'm at least half zentraedi myself, and my grandmother's a Praxian. But turians? Asari? **Batarians?** We were at war with these people not that long ago, Commander."

"Are you forgetting how we met the zentraedi and invid, Gunny?" he asked, somewhat bemused.

"But we **won** those wars, sir," she pointed out as she started pacing. "We established ourselves; we **earned** their respect. We haven't really had a chance to do that with the Citadel races, and Parliament has us begging at the Council's table for scraps instead of standing on our own and showing them what we're capable of. We're better than that, sir, and we deserve a chance to prove it."

John had to admit, Ash had a point. The Relay War had lasted three years and ended inconclusively. A lot of bad blood lingered from that, leading to the cold war that followed. Even with projects like the Normandy to try and bring them together, things remained strained between the Citadel and the Sentinels.

"I understand, Ash," he said gently. "Believe me, I do, but we're not going to get far if we insist on kicking everyone's asses first." He paused, then added, "Okay, it would probably work with the krogans and maybe the turians, but probably not anyone else. As for the batarians... we have our orders."

She growled in frustration.

* * *

After Antibaar, taking out the next geth outpost they found - on Maji - had proven to be a much simpler task, almost routine, even with the Mako down for repairs and Shepard himself benched due to his concussion. Kaidan took down the geth's heavier defenses with air-to-surface missiles, and the Marine Force Recon team had gone in with Cyclones to mop up, taking only light casualties and no fatalities. It made Shepard wary as they entered the Gagarin system.

It seemed he wasn't the only one concerned, either, as the batarian commando had joined him in the CIC, standing behind and to his left. "Something wrong, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Rayingri," she murmured. "It's a rough planet, but promising in mineral content. A research team was sent out there a couple of months ago to do some surveys."

"And?"

"They went dark a week ago," she said, her voice clipped. "It's not uncommon for prospectors to lose touch for days or even weeks at a time, but..."

"But given the timing," Shepard continued, nodding in understanding.

"Precisely."

They lapsed into silence.

"Thanks, by the way," he added.

"Hmm?"

"For pulling me to cover while I was blacked out on Antibaar." It was a guess, but no one else had been in the right position to do it.

"Your death would have been a black mark against me and my people," she replied blandly.

"How's the head, John?" Jane asked, stepping up on his right side.

"Better," he answered with a shrug. "The doc cleared me for bridge duty. You feel up to leading a ground mission? The Marines did fine on Maji, but with a batarian research outpost there, I'm sure Lieutenant Kilika would rather be going, and I'd be more comfortable with an N7 in charge down there."

"Not a problem. Something wrong?"

"Just a gut feeling."

* * *

**Codex: Invid**

The invid are perhaps the most important species in the Sentinels Alliance, crucial to the production of the Flower of Life and protoculture which allows the Sentinels exclusive access to robotechnology. Little of their history is known to outsiders, beyond the fact that they were driven from their original homeworld by the Haydonites long before Zor initiated first contact between the invid and the Tirolians. During the rise of the Robotech Masters, the invid's adopted homeworld of Optera was razed, and the invid split between the Regent and the Regess.

First contact between Earth forces and the invid occurred in late 2030, after the end of the Second Robotech War on Earth, when forces under the Regent's command engaged Expeditionary Force units in former Tirolian space. In 2031, the other half of the invid under the Regess successfully invaded and conquered Earth, one of the few planets known to be able to support the Flower of Life. The Regent and his forces were subsequently defeated by the Sentinels Alliance, and the Regess was later convinced to depart Earth during the Expeditionary Force's final attempt to retake Earth in July of 2044.

During the Fourth Robotech War which followed - the Haydonite War - the Regess's invid would return to assist humanity against the Children of Shadows and actually join the Sentinels Alliance originally formed to fight the Regent's invid in the 2030s. Since then, despite tensions with the other Sentinel members, the invid have remained a staunch ally of the United Earth Alliance, even interbreeding with humanity on a number of occasions.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Protoculture Effect (11/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

John Shepard resisted the urge to pace the Normandy's CIC as he waited on the ground team's report.

"Commander, we've got incoming!" Negulesco called. "Two ships just dropped out of FTL, cruiserweight. Profiles are geth."

The Spectre's eyes widened as he ran through their options. He couldn't abandon the ground team, but a heavy cruiser and a frigate didn't stand a chance against two cruisers. That was assuming the batarians would even-...

"Incoming transmission from the Ashar, Commander. Patching it through."

"Commander Shepard, I hope you don't mind if we take care of this little problem, do you?" The batarian captain's voice was almost gleeful.

"Go right ahead, Captain," Shepard said cautiously.

"With pleasure."

When the transmission ended, Shepard frowned. "Negulesco, monitor the Ashar with everything we've got. Let's see what they're up to."

"They're orienting their bow toward the geth ships, sir, and... it seems to be separating. Hold on... they've cut their engines." She turned to look back at the commander. "They're drifting, sir." Her console beeped, and she quickly turned her attention back to it, her head whipping back around. "Wait! I'm reading energy building up- oh my God!"

Shepard's eyes darted to the video feeds of the external cameras, flicking across them until he saw the Ashar, a brilliant beam of energy forming between the separated bow sections before lancing out at the geth cruisers, annihilating them both.

"My God," he echoed. "They have a reflex cannon."

* * *

There were times when Jane Hunter really hated John Shepard's gut. It had an annoying tendency to be **right** at all the wrong times. She was United Earth Spacy Special Operations Command, an N7 operative, a veteran who had seen more than her fair share of bloody battlefields and had proven her ability to remain cool under fire. That didn't mean she couldn't get nervous, however, and the spooky atmosphere as they approached the research outpost wasn't helping.

When she got back to the Normandy, she was going to have to spar with him a bit so she could hit him a few times. Or more than a few times. In the fabled gut.

Kilika followed the human woman to the research outpost. She was armed, as always, with a sniper rifle, a machine pistol, and her knives. The knife blades were mass effect compressed alloys, and small mass effect generators in the hilts automatically adjusted the blades' mass on the fly, allowing her to wield them as though they were light as a feather while striking with the weight of a full-grown man behind each blow.

"This is Lieutenant Kilika, Special Intervention Unit," she radioed again as they approached. "If anyone can hear me, please respond."

No answer.

"Commander." That was the other human woman, the medic. "Those things near the building. We saw those before, on Eden Prime. The geth were using them to turn people into... into zombies."

Kilika did not know what a zombie was, but she felt her insides knot up anyway. This could not be good.

"Understood, Corpsman."

They continued on in silence, entering the underground research facility, only to be confronted with a horror the batarian commando couldn't have conceived of.

They had once been batarians, that much was obvious, but their bodies were twisted and broken, yet they moved with an unnatural speed, twitching and jerking in a mockery of life, and their eyes and mouths glowed with an unholy blue light.

"Put 'em down, people." Hunter's voice was tight, controlled, hard. She had barely given the order when Kilika drew her machine pistol and opened fire - it was too tight for her sniper rifle - and when it beeped a complaint, she holstered the overheated weapon and charged in, blades flashing.

She was SIU. She knew the most efficient ways to use her blades to kill just about every species known to batariankind, but it was her own people she was most intimately familiar with, and she used that knowledge to deadly effect. Between that and the gunfire from the rest of the squad, the room was clear in seconds.

Kilika turned and frowned. One of the... creatures... was dragging itself feebly across the floor toward her. Or more accurately, toward the body lying at her feet. Its legs had been blown clean off, and it was leaving a trail of its own insides behind. It should have been long dead from blood loss... but then again, whatever was leaking from their wounds, it wasn't blood.

All four of her eyes widened in shock and disgust as the lone survivor started tearing off parts of the body in front of her and stuffing them in its mouth. The blue glow seemed to grow brighter, and she could see its guts slowly stitching themselves back together as it fed. She took two steps over and crouched by the pitiful looking creature. She stabbed down with both blades, then scissored them, decapitating it, and the blue glow finally died. She took a closer look at the body and reached out to touch it, then snatched her hand back when she realized it was trembling.

"Who would do this?" she demanded, looking up at the humans. "They were surveyors! **Researchers!**"

It was then that one of the doors leading out of the room slid open, disgorging more of the twisted cannibals. Kilika turned, drawing her machine pistol again, and opened fire from where she crouched. Behind the creatures were geth, led by a pair of grey-and-yellow destroyers, but Kilika held her ground. She locked down her emotions and stuck to short, controlled bursts to keep her pistol from overheating.

She needn't have bothered, as a swarm of Recluse-D micro-missiles soon rendered the point moot.

Kilika stood up, looking down at what had become of the researchers stationed here. A hand touched her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. Taking the hint, Hunter backed off. Good. She needed no comfort from a **human**.

* * *

Shepard rubbed his eyes as he reread the mission report in front of him. The facility on Rayingri had been just another victim of the geth incursion, and they still hadn't found the geth's forward operating base in the Skyllian Verge. At the moment, they were working on triangulating the signals the various outposts were receiving with the incoming vectors of the two geth cruisers, but it was a slow-going affair, and it would be a while before they got any results from it.

At the moment, though, he had other concerns, concerns which the EIA was most assuredly going to shit a brick over. Like the fact that the batarians apparently had a working reflex cannon and decided to demonstrate that fact to them. Like the report of the husks on Rayingri actually **eating** their fallen comrades and apparently regenerating from it. Like the request before him now which he was trying to distract himself from with the aforementioned mission report.

"You want to **what?**"

"I wish to continue assisting your mission against Saren after you leave the Skyllian Verge," Kilika answered, her voice clipped. "Saren and the geth are a threat to batarian and human interests alike. Whatever they are planning must not be allowed to succeed."

John wondered just when the hell the Normandy flew into the Twilight Zone.

"I'll have to clear that with the Alliance," he answered finally. "This ship is technically on loan, and there may be security concerns."

"Understood, Commander."

"You've cleared this with your chain of command, right? I don't want there to be any mix ups."

"I will, sir."

* * *

Notanban was a gas giant in the Grissom system, and according to their signal analysis, the source of the transmissions coordinating geth activity in the Skyllian Verge was nearby. A fragmentary transmission allowed them to localize it to a section of Solcrum, Notanban's largest moon. Aerial reconnaissance marked out a probable structure, and the team went down, still under its temporary leadership.

Jane scanned the defenses around the geth facility. It was larger than the others and heavily defended. The watch towers were manned by geth, too far away for her to identify the specific type, but of larger concern were the two geth colossi stomping a patrol circuit around the compound and the geth fighters overhead, currently dueling with Kaidan's fighter.

John had been wrong about Rayingri. She should have known better than to relax before the other shoe dropped.

"Bhatia," she said, "you're with me; we'll be taking the demolition charges. Urdnot, Jenkins, head to this waypoint," she marked the location on the terrain map in her omni-tool and transmitted the data over, "then on my signal... make some noise, focus on whichever colossus is closest. Vakarian, Kilika, I want you two on overwatch, providing sniper cover; let me know when you're in position, then wait for my signal and hit the tower guards first."

Jane kept a watchful eye on Bhatia, but the corpsman was holding together pretty well, all things considered, as she gingerly handled the CT-39 demolition charge. About the size of a dinner plate, the military demolition charges were designed with a cobalt-thermite charge for various purposes, ranging from combat engineering to the destruction of sensitive technology. It would also do nicely for bringing down one of those colossi.

Moving quickly and rapidly from cover to cover, they positioned themselves on the far side of the compound, near the colossi's patrol circuit. "Jenkins?"

Jenkins's indicator light on her HMD winked green. "Vakarian, Kilika, go."

Suddenly, two of the geth in the watch towers collapsed, tumbling from their perches as the two snipers engaged. Two more geth platforms soon fell, followed by two more. The two colossi turned to investigate, the one closer to the snipers lumbering toward them. The other seemed content on completing its patrol, still stomping toward Jane and Bhatia's position. She eyed the two giant geth platforms, trying to time things just right.

"Jenkins, go."

The colossus which had moved toward the snipers suddenly came under fire as Jenkins and Urdnot opened fire. Even a colossus couldn't ignore Jenkins's heavy weapons - as clearly demonstrated when a shot from the MAC-95 mangled one of its leg joints - and the ponderous geth turned to face the larger threat. The other colossus, the one bearing down on Jane and Bhatia, finally turned, stomping toward its brother, and that was when the two women made their move. Jane signaled Bhatia to hold position, then bolted out of cover and charged the colossus from behind, using her Cyclones' thrusters to bound up the back of the geth mecha before attaching her demolition charge to its back.

Rocketing away, Jane triggered the detonator as soon as she was sure she was clear of the kill zone. The CT-39 detonated, ripping the colossus in half and sending her bowling over from the shockwave alone.

"Bhatia! Go!"

The corpsman charged the other colossus, the one Jenkins had disabled earlier, lugging along her own CT-39 cobalt-thermine demolition charge. Distracted by the incoming heavy fire from Jenkins and Urdnot - supplemented by sniper fire from Vakarian and Kilika, who had finished off the geth infantry - the immobile colossus presented little challenge to Bhatia's attempt to place the charge.

Within minutes, the team gathered to breach the geth facility, but after the two colossi, even the destroyers and juggernauts they found waiting for them withing were a relief.

* * *

Shepard stood stiffly, looking the image of the batarian captain in the eyes.

"Commander," Taban said, "I fear this is where we part company, but I've been informed that Lieutenant Kilika will continue to represent batarian interests in the ongoing pursuit of Saren and the geth, pending authorization from your government."

"Yes," John said, nodding. "Permission has been granted for her to remain aboard the Normandy and assist, if certain conditions are met." Honestly, he was surprised, but the EIA apparently wanted to run some counterintelligence.

He hated spy games.

"Understandable," the batarian captain said, a trace of smugness in his voice. "I've reviewed those conditions, and if Lieutenant Kilika has no objections, neither does the Hegemony."

_Damn,_ John thought. "I see. Well, here's hoping this improves the relationship between our two peoples."

"Indeed."

When the connection cut out, John signed, grinding his teeth.

"You handled that well."

He turned and cocked an eyebrow at the unfamiliar man. He was fairly nondescript, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a business casual suit. "Who are you?" John asked guardedly.

"Daniel Belmont," the man said, extending his hand. "Earth Intelligence Agency."

John shook his hand. "How long have you been here?"

"If you mean 'here' as in this specific spot, watching you, about twenty minutes," Agent Belmont answered. "If you mean 'here' as in on board this ship, since you resupplied at Freedom Station." John scowled, and Belmont held his hands up in a warding gesture. "Come on, Shepard; it's a big, bad galaxy out there. Going around with a Spectre, free access to every port in Citadel space... you think we get an opportunity like this every day? We'd be idiots not to have someone on board, Shepard, especially with your new guest."

"I'm with SOC, Agent Belmont," John growled. "I know how the game is played; that doesn't mean I like it, and that sure as hell doesn't mean I like spooks sneaking onto my ship."

"Then you need better security, don't you?" Belmont countered. "I take it we're heading to Feros now?"

"Excuse me?"

"The geth activity in Attican Beta," Belmont elaborated. "I've been going over the intel since, and I think it's safe to say that, whatever the geth want in the Attican Beta cluster, it's on Feros."

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun."

"Of course it is, Commander!" Belmont said cheerfully. "Look at it this way: At least everything you do from this point on will now be on record." Belmont grinned at the sour look on Shepard's face.

Later, Shepard would be loathe to admit it, but those recordings would come in handy.

* * *

**Codex: Earth Intelligence Agency**

The Earth Intelligence Agency is, as the name implies, the United Earth Alliance's intelligence and counter-intelligence organization, tasked with gathering information on alien governments and other potential threats, as well as countering foreign intelligence efforts in Earth space. The EIA's mandate focuses primarily on foreign powers but also includes dangerous non-governmental organizations, primarily terrorist groups such as Earth First and the Batarian Anti-Liberation Front.

The EIA has divisions dedicated to various different forms of intelligence gathering, but the bulk of their work is in personal intelligence (PERSINT; the current evolution of what was once known as HUMINT or human intelligence), signals intelligence (SIGINT), measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), technical intelligence (TECHINT), and counter-intelligence (CI).

Although the EIA is a civilian agency, it often works closely with the United Earth Spacy's Special Operations Command and other Earth forces, drawing on them for additional manpower and firepower as needed to handle direct action, in contrast to the Salarian Special Tasks Group, which, as a military organization, handles direct action itself. As the other major espionage network in Citadel space, the EIA has established a working relationship with the STG, and reputedly, the two organizations share a mutual respect, despite their differing approaches to direct action.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

So, did anyone see that coming?


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Protoculture Effect (12/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Well, I can tell you one thing," LtCmdr K'Dar said as he tossed the report down on the desk, eyes darting between the two other occupants of Cmdr Shepard's office. "Whatever that batarian ship's packing, it's not a reflex cannon."

John Shepard opened his mouth, but Daniel Belmont beat him to the punch. "What do you mean?" the EIA agent asked.

"The Normandy's a stealth frigate, designed for covert reconnaissance," the Normandy's Chief Engineer reminded them patiently. "The mission profile she was built for means she's equipped with all the latest sensors we've got, especially passive sensors. Reflex cannons use protoculture - it's an integral part of how they function - but our PC sensors didn't even twitch. Either the batarians found a substitute for protoculture - not very likely, considering we've been working on that for about a hundred years or so and had no luck - or they're packing Shadow cloaks too - even less likely, considering Negulesco got good, clean readings on the Ashar on both radar and thermal throughout the entire firing sequence - **or**... it wasn't a reflex cannon."

"So, what could it be?" John asked. "Any ideas?"

The CHENG sighed and shifted his massive bulk. The Karbarran was a massive being, tall and heavyset, easily a physical match for a krogan. "I have a few thoughts, but nothing solid. We got a hint of dark energy in the booms right as it powered up, and our scanners suggest the Ashar's packing two spinal mass accelerator cannons instead of one. I'm guessing they're somehow using that to channel the energy."

"Why would they do that?" Belmont frowned, puzzled. "Two spinal guns would mean cutting their power in half, wouldn't it?"

"They're trading firepower for rate of fire," John explained. "Two cannons mean they can fire one while the other's still cooling down. But how does their pseudo reflex cannon fit in?"

"I don't know," K'Dar admitted. "That energy cannon of theirs is horribly inefficient. With the amount of bleed off our sensors were reading, they had to have dumped most of their fusion reactor's output into that one shot."

John leaned back and blew out a sigh. "God. Parliament's going to go nuts over this. We've always held the firepower advantage over the Citadel."

"We still do," K'Dar pointed out. "Their so-called reflex cannon is only maybe a third as powerful as one of ours."

"I see," John acknowledged. "Still, this is a whole order of magnitude over what they had before. It may not be much, but even at a third power, even if it's the only one they've got, it's still going to panic a lot of people."

"True. Good luck dealing with that, sir."

"I'm not getting thrown under the ship **that** easily, K'Dar. I need a full workup on what we know: What they did, how they could have done it, and your best guess on how long it would take them to turn out an Ashar-class heavy."

"Do you have any idea how long that's going to take?"

John's smirk told him he knew precisely how long it would take.

K'Dar's reply was long, colorful, and most importantly, ended with "sir."

* * *

HA1c Nirali Bhatia stepped out of the chow line and into the mess proper, her tray loaded with her prize. She'd been pulling double shifts with Dr. Chakwas in trying to analyze what the hell the geth had done to those batarian surveyors. Hot food and a warm bed called to her, but as she scanned the mess for an open table, she found herself frowning at a lone Marine hunched over his food.

After a moment's consideration, she headed over and joined him. "Hey, this seat taken?"

"No," Cpl Richard Jenkins said, shaking his head as he pushed some mashed potatoes around on his tray. "Feel free."

"What's bothering you, Rick?"

"It's nothing, Doc," the Marine said, offering a noncommital shrug. "Just... just a feeling."

"A bad one?" she probed.

"Like I should already be dead," he snorted. "I feel like I'm... living on borrowed time, that somehow... fate missed, and it's catching up to me. Back on Eden Prime, I got ambushed. The geth had me dead to rights, tore right through my shields. If it weren't for my Cyclone's armor, I'd be dead."

"That's why we use Cyclones, Marine," she reminded him gently. The sentiment was chillingly close to how she'd felt sometimes. The geth attack on Eden Prime had been a nightmare, with the geth throwing in some of their toughest units. Except when the armatures and colossi came into play, their later battles were laughably easy in comparison. "Don't tell me you've been sitting on this all this time."

"Nah, not really," he said, shaking his head. "But seeing that colossus up close and trying to kill me down on Solcrum? That kinda put things in perspective."

"Understandable," she agreed, nodding. She wasn't about to admit her need for a fresh set of underwear after she'd planted that CT-39 on the colossus. All told, it was probably the craziest thing she'd ever done, and if she had her way, Samesh would **never** find out about it. "So," she said, deciding to change the subject, "heard from your folks lately? How are they holding up after the attack?"

Nirali knew the Jenkins family on Eden Prime. They were homesteaders; Rick's older brother was running the farm these days.

"Actually, yeah," he said, his expression brightening. "They're doing okay, actually. Seems the geth pretty much bypassed the farm. The worst was Elise spraining her ankle getting Dad down into the cellar."

"That's a relief," she said sincerely. "They're good people."

"They're what we're fighting for, right?"

"True enough."

* * *

"So, you were infected by a genetically engineered disease that's slowly wiping out your species?" Wrex spat. He and Shepard were having a rather... **interesting**... discussion, and the commander had made a possibly ill-considered comparison between their two peoples.

"No," Shepard replied without batting an eye, "we just had our planet bombed back to the stone age by a fleet of nearly five million ships armed to the teeth with directed energy weapons. Then we kicked their asses."

The battlemaster was silent for a long moment. Krogan, he'd noticed, were a lot like zentraedi, and he'd been gambling on that, but now he was beginning to wonder if he'd backed the wrong horse.

"Ha! You've got a quad on you, Shepard," Wrex declared. "You and your whole damned species."

Shepard suppressed a sigh of relief at having successfully broken the ice with the taciturn krogan. The topic soon turned to other subjects - krogan society, Wrex's father, the family armor - and Shepard found himself able to relax in the krogan's presence. Since Wrex had essentially forced his way on board, Shepard had been a little leery of the krogan mercenary, and the discussion was doing a lot to ease his concerns.

* * *

The two of them were sharing dinner. Given their biologies, it was safest that way.

"So," Garrus said, "how does this compare to life in the Migrant Fleet?"

Tali mulled that over for a moment, then answered, "Quieter."

"Here or with the Flotilla?"

"Both."

Garrus's fringe shifted questioningly. "How does that work?"

"It was much quieter back home in that we didn't have quite so many explosions," Tali deadpanned. "But the Normandy itself is so quiet... I sometimes have trouble sleeping."

"Because it's too quiet?"

"On a quarian ship," she explained, "when it's quiet, it means something has failed, like life support or engines, and that can be fatal."

"Huh," Garrus murmured thoughtfully, leaning back. "I never thought about it that way."

"What about you?" Tali asked. "How does this compare to C-Sec?"

"Better," Garrus answered without hesitation. "Just going after the bad guys and taking them out, no paperwork or red tape to get in the way."

"Did they get in the way often?"

"You could say that," Garrus said darkly.

"What happened?" she asked gently.

* * *

Nirali slid into the seat at the fold comm terminal. Her chat with Rick earlier had her anxious to talk to Samesh again, and this would be her only chance before they hit Feros.

"Hello?"

"Sam? It's me."

She heard a rustle, and then the video monitor turned on, revealing her husband in their living room, a concerned look on his face. "Nira? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Sam," she said. "I just wanted to see how things were going back home."

"Things are going well," her husband replied warmly. "The loan for the restaurant is looking quite promising, and there's definitely interest."

"That's great!"

"So, how's your top secret mission going, Nirali?"

"Fine," she said with a faint huff of annoyance. "You know, we should visit the Citadel together one of these days, maybe even take one of those galaxy cruises." She shook her head. "The things I've seen... it's amazing out here, Samesh."

"It's also dangerous," he said predictably. "Nirali, what is wrong?" he asked again.

"Nothing's wrong, Samesh."

"That's twice you've called me by my full name in less than a minute, Nira," he pointed out. He had refrained from commenting earlier, when she had called from the Citadel, as the attack on Eden Prime had to have shaken her even if it was no worse than she'd tried to make it seem, but now, he was worried.

"It's **nothing**, Sam," she insisted. "I just... a member of the squad has family on Eden Prime, and we got talking. I got nostalgic. I **miss** you, Sam."

"Then come back, Nira. Request a transfer."

"I will, Sam," she promised. "As soon as this mission's over."

"I look forward to it, Nira. I love you."

"I love you too, Sam."

With that, they terminated the connection, and the corpsman bounced up out of the chair. The chat hadn't gone quite like she would have hoped, but it did energize her. It helped to connect. She froze when she realized who had been waiting patiently for the fold comm terminal.

"Commander? I-I didn't know you were..."

"Don't worry about it, Corpsman," LtCmdr Jane Hunter assured her. "I wasn't waiting long."

Nirali bobbed her head in a nod. "I'll... I'll be going now, ma'am."

"Be my guest," Jane said, letting the corpsman depart before seating herself at the comm terminal. She punched up the connection code for the UES Kilimanjaro and hoped she wasn't too late.

"Jane," Capt Hannah Hunter greeted her daughter warmly. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it."

"The crew first," Jane answered with a shrug. "How've you been, Mom?"

"The usual," the older woman replied. The Kilimanjaro was a showpiece ship, one of the "dreadnoughts" the Treaty of Farixen "allowed" the Alliance to have, and as such, generally assigned to areas bordering Citadel space to give the illusion that the Treaty of Farixen actually limited the Spacy. "Followed an anonymous tip and ran down a pirate gang on Sharjila; the Marines got some exercise."

"Good to hear you're keeping busy."

"Have you called home lately?" Hannah asked. "Your father has some news about Jason." Jason was Jane's little brother, just graduating high school

"I was going to call home next," Jane answered. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Oh, heavens, no!" came the reply. "Jason got that scholarship he applied for. He's got his pick of universities, but he's thinking of the Academy."

"Are you serious? A free ride, and he's thinking of getting a commission?"

"That's what your father tells me."

"Oh, good grief," Jane muttered, running a hand through her hair. "I'd better talk some sense into him."

"Good luck with that," her mother said, offering an amused half-smile. "He **is** a Hunter."

* * *

Joker blinked and watched the batarian woman walk off. They had been discussing various things; he had corrected her about several misconceptions about humans she apparently had, and she had apparently done the same for him about batarians. Through an odd twist of conversation that he was having a little trouble following even now, she had told him that she would like to talk again at a later time.

_...did she just ask me out on a date?_

"Oh, and Lieutenant...?" she said, pausing and looking back over her shoulder at him.

"Yeah?" he blinked, looking up at her.

"Close your mouth. You're drooling."

His jaw clicked shut, and with that, she sauntered off, leaving a stunned Joker in her wake.

* * *

"Commander?"

John Shepard looked up from the intel report on Feros he was rereading for the fifth time. "Kaidan, something I can help you with?"

"I hope so, sir," the Marine lieutenant said. John waited patiently while Kaidan took a moment to gather his thoughts. "I was wondering if we could make a stop in the Artemis Tau cluster, sir, specifically the Sparta system."

The commander took a moment to pull up the relevant data. "The Sparta system, Lieutenant? Why?"

Kaidan looked away and said, "While we were at Freedom Station, I had a chat with General Kahoku."

"Kahoku? With Force Recon?"

"Yes, sir," Kaidan confirmed. "Some of his Marines have gone MIA in that system, and he can't peel off a Spacy ship to investigate."

"No offense, Kaidan, but we've got enough problems on our plate as it is," John said reluctantly.

"I understand that, sir," Kaidan said, nodding, "but a favor like that will net us a friend in high places, Commander. You never know when that might come in handy."

"Fair enough," John said, nodding appreciatively. "If we've got time, we'll look into it."

"Thank you, sir."

* * *

"All right," Ashley said, "remember, timing is important. You depress the thumb control and stand up exactly one second later. Don't forget to watch your head clearance. Remember the concussion from last time."

"Understood," Liara acknowledged. Last time, she had panicked and accidentally triggered a thruster jump, banging her (thankfully) helmeted head on the deck above. "Well, here we go." She depressed the thumb control and stood up, marveling as the Cyclone wrapped itself around her. "This is... quite remarkable," she said as she flexed her arm experimentally. "This technology is amazing. I can... **feel** the power in this machine."

"Yeah, it can be pretty intoxicating," the Marine admitted. "Compared to a regular hardsuit, you're practically unstoppable in a Cyclone: stronger shields, thicker armor, heavier weapons, the works. Just don't let it get to your head; it doesn't make you invulnerable."

"So, what should I do now?"

"Just get used to walking around a bit," Ashley advised. "It takes some getting used to, and I don't think we want a repeat of last time."

"All right."

* * *

"Hey, Commander," Joker greeted Shepard as he approached the cockpit. "Did you collect stray cats as a kid? 'Cause we really needed a batarian assassin on board."

"Joker," Shepard growled.

"Yes, Commander?"

"Shut up."

"Aye, Commander."

That done, Shepard watched as Joker brought the Normandy in toward the colony of Zhu's Hope.

* * *

**Earth Intelligence Agency**  
**Top Secret**  
**Code Word Access Only**

_Subject: Ashar-class Heavy Cruiser_  
_To: m (at) eia . gov_  
_From: d . belmont1 (at) eia . gov_

This report covers the Batarian Hegemony's new heavy cruiser, identified as the Ashar-class until we acquire more intel. First encountered by the UES Normandy on a joint mission into the Skyllian Verge, the KSS Ashar indicates that the Hegemony's research and development cycle is much faster than previously estimated. Much of this analysis comes courtesy of LtCmdr K'Dar, UES Normandy's Chief Engineer.

Structural analysis indicates the Ashar is mounted with two spinal mass accelerator cannons instead of the traditional one. Much like on a reflex cannon monitor or SDF, the bow of the Ashar is split into two booms, each mounted with one spinal mass accelerator cannon. The twin cannon design offers a theoretical increase in rate of fire in exchange for a decrease in firepower. The effectiveness of this configuration is as yet unknown but predicted to result in superior performance against lighter ships but inferior performance against comparable weight or heavier ships.

In the Gagarin system, the Ashar also demonstrated an unknown weapon comparable to a reflex cannon, destroying two geth cruisers. Based on observed data, this main weapon appears to drain the Ashar's power considerably and has a yield approximately one third that of a comparable reflex cannon. Current leading theory is that, rather than being vented and cooled, plasma from the main fusion reactor is instead dumped directly out between the booms and accelerated toward the target by the mass effect fields generated by the spinal cannons' mass effect cores.


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Protoculture Effect (13/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Zhu's Hope was under siege.

Shepard found it more than a little creepy the way all the colonists invariably referred them to Fai Dan. New colonies tended to attract adventurous, independent-minded people, and their deference to any one man was thoroughly uncharacteristic of frontier colonists, underscoring just how much stress they were under. Given they had barely gotten through half a conversation with Fai Dan before the geth attacked, he could understand it.

That didn't make the itch between his shoulder blades go away. There was something... off about the whole situation. Maybe it was the frustration at apparently losing Saren's trail or the desperate situation the colonists were in or the proximity of hostile geth, but whatever it was, something set his teeth on edge, like a faint buzzing in the back of his head.

Still, they did what they could to help. A few protoculture cells from the Normandy's stores got the colony's power up and running, and with it, their agro-cloning chambers and water reprocessing system, securing both food and water supplies so long as the power held out.

"We need to push on," Garrus said, "find out what the geth want here, and I think our best bet at finding answers is at the ExoGeni complex."

"Agreed," Shepard said with a curt nod. "We'll head for the skyway."

"Commander?" Bhatia spoke up. "Request permission to stay here and help the colonists. They've been under fire without proper trauma care for a while now, and some of them are experiencing..." she shook her head, "...I'm not quite sure what. I'd like to see what I can do to help."

"I think we can survive on medigel," Shepard replied dryly. "Permission granted."

* * *

The team stood on the skyway, looking at the ExoGeni building in the distance.

"That's... a long walk," Garrus murmured.

"That's why we have Cyclones," Shepard pointed out. "Garrus, Wrex, Kilika, you three think you can keep from killing each other long enough to help the colonists clean out the last of the geth here?"

"No promises, Shepard," rumbled Wrex as the non-human trio turned and headed back to the elevator.

Shepard looked over the rest of his team - Kaidan Alenko, Richard Jenkins, and Ashley Williams - as they transformed their Cyclones back into hovercycle mode. Protoculture energizers thrummed with power as they rocketed down the skyway.

Kaidan was the first one to spot them.

"Armatures!"

"Don't stop!" Shepard ordered as he swerved to the left to avoid a siege blast, skirting dangerously close to the edge of the skyway and the incalculable drop to the unseen ground below. "Keep moving! We'll blow right past 'em!"

They didn't have the firepower to take on multiple armatures.

Jenkins's Cyclone fishtailed briefly as he tried to straighten from his own swerve, trying to maintain speed as the foot-mobile geth opened fire. Regaining control, he gunned the engine, plowing right into a geth destroyer, knocking it back and using it as a ramp as he jumped the hovercycle over the crowd of geth infantry and past the armature.

Kaidan, for his part, flung one juggernaut out of his way with a pulse of dark energy, maintaining his composure as he used his biotics to help keep his Cyclone under control. Ashley, however, had been in the center of the formation, heading straight toward the first armature, so she did the only thing she could do: She revved her engine and leaned to the side, riding her hovercycle **under** the looming geth siege platform.

Within seconds, the four Cyclone riders had reunited on the other side, zipping away from the geth at a speed they couldn't match.

"You know, Commander," Kaidan pointed out, "we're still going to have to get past them on the way **back**."

"Don't remind me."

"Skipper, I'm picking up some radio chatter up ahead, sounds human," Ashley reported. As they approached a covered area, she added, "Wait one. Sounds like they've seen us."

* * *

Garrus hung back, allowing Wrex and Kilika to take point as they advanced down into the tunnels where the geth still lurked. He was a sniper, after all, and Wrex and Kilika were best when they could get up close and personal with the enemy.

"At least **try** not to slow us down, krogan."

"Kiss my quad, batarian."

Not that that was the only reason he gave them space. Still, what he was picking up was too important to be left unsaid. He cleared his throat. "The transmission's pretty strong now. The geth transmitter must be just up ahead." The words "so be careful" died in his mouth as he remembered who he was talking to.

When the three krogan warlords charged at them, he began to regret not saying those three extra words.

Garrus didn't have time to check on Wrex or Kilika, as one of the krogans was charging directly for him. He managed to get one shot off with his sniper rifle, knocking out the krogan's shields before he rammed into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs and jamming him up against the opposite wall. He slumped to the floor as the krogan stepped back, leveling a massive shotgun.

That was the opportunity Garrus needed. The turian's hand darted down and came up clutching his Predator. The pistol barked several times, punching into the krogan's soft tissue before one round finally found his eye. The krogan swayed for a moment before finally toppling over, dead.

After picking himself up and dusting himself off, Garrus turned to look for his sniper rifle.

"I hate close quarters combat," he muttered.

* * *

Shepard really, **really** hated politics, and corporate politics were even worse. At least with regular politics, the media was around to keep them honest. Corporate types were a lot better at hiding their dirty laundry. Ethan Jeong was the perfect example of corporate middle management, ranking high enough to be a scapegoat and low enough to be expendable. Shepard could see the frantic desperation in his eyes, which darted around, as if looking for an escape.

Of course, being in the middle of a geth invasion was plenty enough to make anyone nervous, but he seemed suspiciously unrelieved at having a heavily-armed trio of UEMC Marines led by a Spacy SOC Commander/Spectre show up. Still, as far as Shepard could prove, he wasn't guilty of anything except acting a little squirrelly, so rather than confront the administrator, he filed away the odd reaction for later consideration. Instead, he turned to the woman next to Jeong, Juliana Baynham.

"No promises, but we'll keep an eye out for your daughter," he assured her. The ExoGeni facility was in another one of the ancient Prothean towers that dotted Feros, reaching through the clouds to the sky above. Feros was his only real lead; he **had** to pick up Saren's trail if he was going to stop the rogue Spectre, and the ExoGeni facility was his best bet.

* * *

The trio returned to the central clearing the colonists of Zhu's Hope had fortified.

"We took care of the geth in the tunnels for you," Wrex said. "They had a transmitter down there."

"We ran into another colonist down there, too," Garrus added. "I think he called himself... Ian?"

"Ian Newstead," Fai Dan said, nodding. "I know him."

"He needs help," the turian said, shaking his head. "I don't think he's all there, so to speak."

"He's very sick," Fai Dan agreed, offering a helpless shrug, "but we can't help him."

Garrus stroked his chin. "Maybe the corpsman should take a look at him." He clicked on his radio; now that they were out of the tunnels, there wouldn't be any interference from the tunnel walls. "Bhatia, this is Vakarian. We ran into someone down in the tunnels; I think he needs some serious help."

As he spoke with the corpsman, he was too distracted to notice Fai Dan's reflexive objection go unvoiced. Kilika, however, was not.

"Is there a problem?" she hissed.

"N-no," Fai Dan stammered. "No problem. If you'll excuse me, the colony has issues that I need to tend to."

"What was that about?" Garrus asked, frowning at the batarian commando.

"I don't think he wanted you to do that, Detective Vakarian," she replied, her voice dripping with contempt.

"The batarian's right," Wrex rumbled. "He's hiding something."

"They're **all** hiding something," she corrected. "The real question is... are they hiding the **same** thing? And if so, what?"

"Vakarian to Bhatia, have you noticed anything suspicious among the colonists?"

"That's putting it mildly," came the reply. "Something's got these people practically up in arms over a simple blood test."

"Are you in danger?"

"No..." she replied slowly. "Could I be?"

"I don't know," Garrus admitted, "but there's something not right about this whole situation. Watch your back."

"Shoot to kill."

"Clear the channel, Wrex," Garrus growled. "Listen, Corpsman; it's probably nothing, but keep on your toes anyway. We'll try to find out more."

"All right. Well, I'm on my way; see you in a few."

* * *

"I hate varren," Shepard snarled, taking a moment to fire another particle beam into one of the dead varren before kicking it, his Cyclone's hydraulics sending the corpse skittering across the cavern floor. He took a deep breath and got his trembling under control.

The batarians had used varren at Mindoir. He could still hear the screams.

He turned his attention the woman who had shot at them moments ago, Dr. Lizbeth Baynham. Fortunately, the little pistol she had lifted from a security guard wasn't enough to penetrate their shields, let alone Cyclone armor plating. "All right, Doctor Baynham, I'm glad we found you. Your mother's worried about you."

"So she's safe?" she said. "That's a relief."

"I wouldn't exactly say that she's 'safe,' per se," John said with a shrug. "She's in a secure location with several other ExoGeni employees, but they're also halfway down the skyway with geth on either side of them. Speaking of the geth, I don't suppose you know what they might be looking for on this rock, do you?"

She shook her head. "Not a clue."

John frowned. There was something... off about her answer. She knew something, but it didn't seem like she thought it could have anything to do with the geth's presence. _Interesting..._ He filed that a way as he started asking her about the layout and security measures in the ExoGeni facility.

* * *

"Got a possible lead," Garrus's voice crackled over the comm.

"What did you find?" Wrex asked.

"Believe it or not," the turian replied, "it's that rent-a-cop, Arcelia Martinez."

"The rude one?" Kilika murmured, pausing in surprise from polishing her blades.

"Yeah. Seems there's a cavern under the colony. They found something there, but she's not sure what. I've got the coordinates in my omni-tool."

"Let's check it out, then," Wrex rumbled.

"You three go on ahead," Nirali said. "I've still got these blood tests to finish up, and it's not like CVR is conducive to delicate lab work." The blood tests she was running were fairly basic - easily handled by the sickbay on the freighter parked in the middle of the colony - but they were time-consuming.

"All right," Garrus said. "The rest of us will rendezvous at the colony entrance near the skyway lift."

Within minutes, the three non-human members of Shepard's ground team here on Feros gathered at the colony entrance and were soon on their way toward the coordinates Garrus had loaded into his omni-tool.

"Definitely someone here recently," Garrus muttered, noting the scuff marks on the floor.

"I don't like this," Wrex said. "I smell a trap."

"I don't see how we've got much choice," Garrus pointed out. "This whole colony's acting weird, even for humans."

"We could just wait for the commander," Kilika said, "if you're that scared."

Wrex snorted. "I'm a bit too old for that stunt to work on me, four-eyes. I just thought I'd warn you two so you'd be ready."

"Cut the chatter, both of you," Garrus snapped. "Is it just my imagination, does this tunnel lead directly under the colony?"

"I'd say you're right," Kilika agreed. She flattened her nostrils. "Do you smell something?"

"Nothing I didn't smell up top," Wrex said. "But some of it is stronger down here. Fresher."

"Fresher?" Garrus repeated incredulously. "In an underground tunnel?"

Suddenly, a blinding pain shot through the trio, bringing them to their knees. Dimly, Garrus heard Corpsman Bhatia's voice over the comm. "Bhatia to Vakarian, there's some sort of spore infecting these people, similar to a Flower of Life overdose. We have to initiate quarantine procedures immediately: full seal, masks, everything. Huh? Hey, what are you- back off! Vakarian, I've got a situation here! I need- cut it out! Vakarian, do you copy? **Vakarian!**"

* * *

"Tell me everything you know about the Thorian," Shepard ordered the ExoGeni VI, standing over the krogan they had killed moments ago. Lizbeth had loaned them her ID card so they could use the embedded RFID chip to get through ExoGeni's security lockdown, and the VI had apparently identified Shepard as her through said RFID chip.

"The Thorian is a simple plant life form that exhibits sentient behavior uncommon with other flora and possibly related to the invid Flower of Life. Through disper-"

"Elaborate on possible connection between Species Thirty-Seven and the invid Flower of Life," he interrupted the VI.

"Unable to comply, Doctor Baynham. That information exceeds your clearance level."

Shepard growled. "Continue."

"Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, the Thorian can affect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost eighty-five percent of all test subjects were infected."

Well. At least that explained the buzzing in the back of his head back at the colony. Still...

"Are you saying ExoGeni knew its people were getting infected?"

"It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Species Thirty-Seven."

"So that's why they were acting weird," Ashley said.

"I don't like the sound of this, sir," Jenkins murmured.

"Neither do I," he said, his voice hard. "We need to warn the others." He clicked on his comm. "Shepard to Normandy. Come in, Normandy." He waited for a moment, then scowled. "Damn it. The geth must be jamming our comms. We'll have to take out that geth ship first. Everyone got their demo charges?"

He received a chorus of affirmatives. With a satisfied nod, he led the team deeper into the facility. They headed down a corridor and up a flight of the stairs that opened up on a catwalk above.

Shepard stared. _Are those geth... praying?_ Shaking the bizarre mental image out of his head, he silently waved Jenkins forward. The young lance corporal stepped forward and unleashed a salvo of Recluse-Ds, which made short work of the geth shock troopers.

Shepard looked up. "Lot of power conduit there, and those claws look like they're holding the geth ship in place," he mused aloud. "Gunny, set a few demo charges; let's see if we can dislodge that ship and get it out of our hair."

"You got it, skipper."

Within minutes, they had it rigged to blow. It was a beautiful sight; the geth ship, deprived of its support and with its power disrupted was unable to hold its position, falling away from the building and into the fog below.

Shepard's radio suddenly blared to life. "I repeat, Normandy to away team, do you copy? Normandy to away team. Come on, John! Talk to me!"

"Is that you, Jane?" he replied. "What's going on over there?"

"We have a situation here, John," his XO replied. "The colonists have gone berserk. They're attempting to board the ship and doing a piss-poor job of it. They're trying to claw their way in with their bare hands, and... and I can't raise the rest of the away team."

Shepard's blood ran cold. "Sit tight, Jane. We're on our way. Shepard out."


	14. Chapter 14

Title: Protoculture Effect (14/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"You're going to put that damn gun down, tell me everything you know about the Thorian, and then **convince** ExoGeni to change its mind about 'repurposing' Zhu's Hope," Shepard said evenly, the expression on his face brooking no argument.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Jeong denied unconvincingly, waving the pistol toward Shepard's squad. Two men dressed in security uniforms stepped forward. They were also armed, their belts packing kinetic barrier generators.

John cocked an eyebrow. "You're **not** serious. I'm a Spectre; you're a bureaucrat. I've got three Marines with me, and we're all in Cyclones; you've got two security guards with nothing but pistols and kinetic barriers. How exactly do you think this is going to end?"

Jeong visibly swallowed, but before he could gather his nerve, John raised his right arm and tapped the twin tubes mounted there. "Ahem. Missile launcher."

Jeong wilted.

"Don't you think that was a bit... excessive, Commander?"

"No kill like overkill, Kaidan," he assured him. "Right, Jenkins?"

"Yes, sir!" the heavy weapons specialist agreed enthusiastically.

John turned his attention back to Jeong, his blue eyes glittering dangerously. "Now, how do we deal with this... Thorian?"

* * *

John was lost in thought as they walked back to the skyway, absent-mindedly toying with the cylindrical grenade in his hand. The mild nerve agent inside was theoretically able to disable someone infected with the Thorian's spores without permanent damage while leaving an uninfected person unharmed.

They'd keep their CVRs sealed anyway, just in case, as much to protect themselves from the gas as from the Thorian's spores.

"So, skipper, how are we going to handle that armature?"

_I knew I was forgetting something._

"I've got the firepower to take it out," Jenkins pointed out. "I just need to get closer."

John thought about it, then shook his head. "This is ridiculous. It's sitting right out in the open. Jenkins, think you can lase it from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good," John said, then clicked on his radio. "Shepard to Normandy, got a fire mission for you, anti-armor. We will be lasing."

"Copy that, Commander," Jane replied. "Will have assets in the air in approximately five mikes."

"Understood, Normandy. Shepard out. Jenkins?"

"On it, Commander," the young Marine said with a firm nod, dropping to one knee for greater stability as he deployed his Cyclone's targeting system and its integral laser designator.

Minutes later, Kaidan frowned as a familiar shape flew overhead, looping around and launching a CASM "Chasm" close air support munition. The Chasm was a mediumweight laser-guided air-to-surface missile with a kinetic penetrator and high explosive warhead. It punched clean through the geth armature's armor, then detonated within, shredding the armature's guts.

Kaidan frowned.

"Hey, Kaidan," Ashley said, "isn't that your-?"

"It damned well is, Gunny, and when I get my hands on whoever's in the cockpit, I'm going to-"

"What, Lieutenant?" a familiar voice crackled over the radio. "Just what are you going to do to me?"

Kaidan nearly swallowed his tongue. "Go over the personal setting adjustments to ensure optimum efficiency for my combat flight, of course, ma'am."

"Nice save, Lieutenant." John smirked slightly, then clicked on his own radio. "Jane, I'm pretty sure we're well within range of the Normandy's launchers. Brushing up for your flight recert?"

"Just needed to stretch my legs a bit," she replied playfully. "Any other targets you need taken out?"

"I think we can handle it from here," John said. "Shepard out." He turned to the ground team, his expression grim. "Let's move, Marines."

* * *

"What I wanna know," Ashley muttered as the ancient stone block they were crouched behind trembled, "is who the hell gave these colonists rocket launchers?"

As they approached the end of the skyway, the team found themselves under assault by the mind-controlled colonists of Zhu's Hope. The small arms weren't a concern, but they also had some heavy weapons, including what appeared to be a pair of RL-6G missile throwers with an apparently... **generous**... supply of high-explosive RPGs.

"That stranded trader ship is probably running weapons," Kaidan offered. "When the crew got infected..." he trailed off meaningfully.

"Now is not the time to be speculating," John snapped. They were too far away to deploy the anti-Thorian gas, leaving them at an impasse, at least unless the brainwashed colonists suddenly and fortuitously ran out of missiles. Considering how liberally they were firing, that didn't seem likely.

"Everyone, I'll need covering fire," he said as he transformed his Cyclone into hovercycle mode.

"Skipper..."

"Not now, Gunnery Sergeant," came the curt reply as he palmed one of the anti-Thorian gas grenades. "On three." He took a breath to center himself. "Three!"

_This is insane,_ he realized a few seconds later, as he swerved to avoid another missile and nearly lost control. Riding a hovercycle at high speed was dangerous enough. One-handed, over rough terrain, in a relatively enclosed space, while people were shooting at him with missile launchers?

All in all, not one of his better ideas.

He slewed the Cyclone to the right, laying it on its side and plowing into the heavy crates the colonists had been using for cover as he lobbed the gas grenade over.

"Commander, that has got to the **craziest** stunt I've **ever** seen anyone pull," Kaidan commented, shaking his head, as the three Marines rejoined the commander.

"Shaddup," John muttered as he picked himself up and then transformed the Cyclone back into battloid mode. "Let's get moving."

* * *

Ashley brushed past the apparently abandoned Cyclone as she ducked into the Borealis. Her armor-clad feet thudded down the corridor of the grounded freighter as she hurried to catch up to the commander. They had run into another surprise from the Thorian, some kind of zombie-like plant creatures, but that had barely slowed them down as they cleared out the colony and disabled the colonists, but before they headed down to take care of the Thorian, they had to find the rest of the ground team. She caught sight of him at the grounded freighter's sickbay, just as he sealed the hatch and turned away.

She tried to go around him, but he sidestepped and blocked her path. "Commander-!" she protested, raising her arms to... she didn't know what.

He caught her wrists in his hands and met her gaze, his face grim, shaking his head. "Don't, Ash. Not now."

Her gaze drifted to the hatch and the blood pooling on the floor just outside it, and she shook her head. "N-no. She's... skipper, I..." _She's the last one!_ was the thought reverberating in her mind.

"I need your head in the game, Gunny," he said, his voice quiet and gentle. "This isn't going to help."

_You don't understand!_ she wanted to scream. There was no way he **could**. **He** was the great hero of the Skyllian Blitz, but she was the Butcher of Torfan. Her orders had gotten her men killed at Torfan, and then, again at Eden Prime. She was a **failure**, a shame to the Williams name.

_Nirali..._ she thought, closing her eyes. _I'm sorry._

* * *

They found the three non-human ground team members in a tunnel below the colony, apparently paralyzed. The diagnostic program in Shepard's omni-tool was hardly comprehensive, but it appeared they were all right. He only hoped it was accurate. There was no way he was going to risk Dr. Chakwas in a hot zone, and Bhatia...

Well, she wasn't available anymore.

The tunnel opened up into massive chamber, the remains of some incredibly huge, multi-level atrium. The four humans looked up and stared at the gigantic plant before them. Part of it seemed to be looking at them, meeting Shepard's gaze directly.

"It's... beautiful..." he murmured.

"Sir?" Jenkins's voice snapped him out of his sudden reverie.

John blinked and shook his head clear. "Something's wrong. I'm not sure. It- it's... calling me."

"Commander," Kaidan said, "you sure we can't just bring one of our veritechs down here? I'm sure we can pull it off in battloid mode somehow."

The apparent... "face," for lack of a better word, drew back, and something stretched and leaned above the floor. An orifice opened up and disgorged a figure covered in a viscous fluid. At first, John thought it was another one of the plant zombies, but no. As the figure stood up, the fluid sliding off, it was clear this was something different. It looked like an asari.

Except she was green.

"Invaders!" she snarled. "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

"You gave something to Saren," John said, unflinching. "Something I need."

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone," the asari-like creature answered. "The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given!"

"And **we** drove off the 'cold ones,'" Shepard pointed out.

"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry!" she declared. "It sees the air they push as lies!" Her head tilted, and she studied John for a long moment. Her voice softened. "But you are different, seed of the Old Growth's seed."

John blinked. "What did you call me?"

"I think... I think she's saying the invid are descended from this thing somehow," Kaidan said slowly. "I mean, it fits with what we learned from the ExoGeni VI."

"Yeah." John nodded.

"A bargain was struck and broken," she said. "Mend the bargain, and you shall have what you seek."

"You can't seriously be considering this, Commander," Ashley hissed, hatred filling her voice. "After what it's done?"

"We've got no leads, Commander," Kaidan reminded them. "This could be our best chance to pick up Saren's trail."

"And what about the colonists, huh, Lieutenant?" she snapped. "Just write them off as collateral damage?"

"We can make a trade," Kaidan argued. "We can call the Spacy, have them clone up a bunch of blanks and trade them for the colonists."

John looked at the two Marines, then glanced over at Jenkins. "Don't want to put your two cents in, Jenkins?"

"I'm good," the lance corporal squeaked.

John shook his head and wandered past the Thorian's spokeswoman, looking down at the creature itself, thinking deeply. He looked across the Thorian, his Cyclone's scanners taking in the sight before him, noting the Thorian's enormous size and the tendrils holding it in place.

"It's a very good offer," he said finally, looking down at the Thorian directly, rather than the bizarre, green-skinned asari clone it was speaking to them through. "Blood does run thicker than water, after all, and Kaidan's right about the clone blanks."

"Commander-!" Ashley's protest stuttered to a halt as he held up a hand, commanding her silence.

"The thing is," John said, once his scanners had passed the crucial data to Jenkins's Cyclone, "blood runs even thicker once spilled." He rammed an armored gauntlet into the clone, the hydraulics of his Cyclone driving it with enough force to punch through her chest and out her back. "And you killed one of my people. I will find another way. Jenkins, fire."

Recluse-D and Scorpion Mk IV micro-missiles swarmed out from Jenkins's Cyclone, pairing off and seeking their targets. Within seconds, half the tendrils that anchored the Thorian in place were severed by high explosive and plasma warheads. At first, it seemed the remaining tendrils, shielded from the assault by the Thorian's own body, would hold, but after a few, tense seconds, they too tore free, allowing the gigantic creature to plummet into the darkness below.

* * *

Shiala blinked. The fact that she **could** blink surprised her. She was still alive, and she was... free. The asari commando shook her head, trying to clear it of the webs of influence that had clouded it for far too long, then looked up and swallowed hard at sight of the faceless giants towering over her. She knew they couldn't be all that tall - perhaps a head or two taller than herself at most - but the battle-scarred armor and weapons aimed at her told she wasn't free yet, and the light glinting off their visors kept her from seeing their faces.

"Who are you?" the leader demanded.

"I am... Shiala," she said, picking herself up. From this angle, she could see their faces through the tinted visors. "I... I suppose I should thank you for releasing me."

"How did you end up inside that... thing?"

She looked back at the pod that had held her. "I served Matriarch Benezia," she answered. "When she allied herself with Saren, so did I." She noted the looks the humans exchanged. _They didn't know..._ she realized.

"Who's Benezia?"

* * *

John was in Anderson's quarters. Well, technically, they were his quarters now, but it still didn't feel right to him, not with the way Anderson had been summarily beached for the sake of expediency.

For once, he had willingly submitted himself to Dr. Chakwas's post-mission physical, as getting the Cipher shoved into his brain had given him the mother of all migraines. There was too much to be done, and he couldn't do it with special forces demolitions team setting off micro-charges in his skull. He wasn't sure allowing Shiala to stay in Zhu's Hope was the right move, considering her actions there, despite how genuine her guilt seemed, but Fai Dan was apparently convinced, so he'd let it go. Bhatia's remains had been secured for transport, something he simply had had to do personally, and Belmont was working on the intel request on one Matriarch Benezia. He still needed to talk to Ashley - the look in the gunnery sergeant's eyes were... haunted - but he doubted she'd listen yet. The wounds were too fresh; that would have to be done later.

Now, however, the painkillers had worn off, and he was trying very hard to not simply curl up and die.

Chime rang three times before he recognized it. "Enter," he barked, his voice low and harsh.

"Commander?"

He squinted. "Doctor T'Soni? Can I help you?"

"I... yes. Maybe," she said hesitantly as the hatch sealed behind her. "I... I overheard you talking to Mister Belmont about... about Matriarch Benezia?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Why? Do you know her?"

"Not as well as I'd like," she admitted, looking away for a moment. Turning to meet his gaze again, she said, "Matriarch Benezia..." she paused to take a deep breath, "...is my mother."

_Oh._

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Yes, I did, in fact, just kill Nirali after all, and no, I didn't wait until Virmire to do it. I've got plans for Virmire.


	15. Chapter 15

Title: Protoculture Effect (15/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Mister Bhatia, I'm afraid this message comes with bad news."

_No shit,_ Ashley thought to herself as she deleted the text. She tried again.

"Mister Bhatia, I regret to inform you that"

She growled and started over again.

"Samesh Bhatia, it is my sad duty to report the death of"

The gunnery sergeant found her hands clenching in frustration, but her thoughts were interrupted as an arm reached over her shoulder and closed the file. She twisted in her chair. "Hey, I hadn't saved that yet!" She blinked. "Uh, Commander."

"This is not your burden to bear, Gunny," Shepard said quietly.

"Like hell it isn't!" she snapped, half-rising. "Sir," she added as she belatedly snapped to attention. "I mean, we served together for eighteen months on Eden Prime, Commander. She was my corpsman. She was the last-" she broke off.

"The last of the Two-Twelve," he finished for her. "I know. But she died under my command, not yours. This isn't Torfan, and this isn't Eden Prime."

Fury erupted within the NCO, clamped down to a simmer by years of discipline. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" she ground out.

"Granted."

"I realize that this isn't Torfan or Eden Prime," she said, "but respectfully, I don't believe you're qualified to assess whether any such comparison is valid or not."

"At ease, Williams," he said, then turned and leaned against the console, staring at the far wall instead of looking at her. "You don't think so? You lost people at Torfan, at Eden Prime, but they were Marines. They knew what they signed up for. Have you ever led civilians into combat, Gunny?"

"No, sir," she admitted. After a pause, she asked, "The Blitz?"

He nodded, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes distant, seeing something light-years away and years ago. "People remember the vid of that Janissary I salvaged, still fighting when reinforcements arrived. Truth is, it was already over by then. Hell, I never trained in Janissaries and nearly got myself killed, but I was the only one left with **any** combat mecha training after the garrison and perimeter patrols got hit."

He paused, thinking back. Elysium's picket flotilla had been out on maneuvers at the time, precision orbital bombardment had obliterated the Army garrison, and gunship flybys had rapidly picked off the outlying patrols before they could regroup. Suspicion roiled within him ever since the after action review, finally curling up into a cold ball of certainty in his gut. Someone had fed them the intel, someone within the Alliance, and one day, he was going to track down who. If it weren't for the fact that he knew she wouldn't know what he wanted, he would have already had a "chat" with Lieutenant Kilika on the matter, interstellar incident be damned.

"It was the volunteer militia who did the real work," he continued, "fighting and dying until the end. They were brave and eager - I'll give them that - but they were still just farmers with guns and a handful of technicals, agrosuits and farm trucks with guns and steel plate bolted on. They had no idea what they were getting into, Gunny. They just... they wanted to help."

"So did Nira," Ash murmured.

"That's the real kicker, isn't it?" he acknowledged with a bitter snort. "Had she been any less caring - any less good a person - she might still be alive right now." He looked back over to her. "This is not your burden, Gunny," he repeated. After a moment, his expression softened, and he added, "But... Mister Bhatia would probably want to hear from his wife's friend."

"Thanks, Skipper," she said finally, unsure how else to respond to that. She decided to change the subject. "So, any word on this Matriarch Benezia yet?"

"Not yet," Shepard said. "Belmont's got his asari counterpart checking things out or... something like that," he added, shaking his head. "Right now, we're heading for the Hercules system, going after a recon probe that went dark, then it's off to Artemis Tau. Some Force Recon Marines went missing there, so we're gonna go check it out. You gonna be up for it, Gunny?"

"Oorah, sir."

"**There's** my hardass killing machine."

"Damn straight. Sir."

* * *

John refused to talk about Eletania.

The mission itself was an unqualified success, as they had recovered the recon probe and dispatched the geth strike force without anyone suffering more than minor injuries, but the Prothean artifact they ran across did... **something** to the first human Spectre. Still, he insisted he was fine, and it didn't seem to leave any adverse effect on him once the light show was over, so everyone let it drop.

Well, everyone except Dr. Chakwas, who insisted on a full physical first.

With three different methods of FTL travel - space fold, mass effect, and mass relay - it swiftly became a complicated affair to determine the best compromise between speed, safety, and efficiency. Fortunately, the trip to the Artemis Tau cluster was only two relay jumps away from the Attican Beta cluster, making Pressly's decision easy. Once there, they began picking up a fold-comm distress beacon from the second planet in the Sparta system, Edolus.

John surreptitiously checked on his squad from the commander's seat in the newly-repaired Mako. The mood on the Normandy had been gloomy ever since Bhatia's death on Feros, but everyone seemed to be working through it. Jacob was driving, and Rick Jenkins was manning the guns. Ashley was in the passenger compartment alone, while Kaidan was flying them in. For this mission, given the parameters, he had chosen to go with an all-human team; none of the alien volunteers had any stake in this, after all. He had debated bringing along an extra fire team from the Normandy's MARDET, but that was probably overkill, and frankly, Jane needed them to maintain proper Alliance security protocols with all the aliens on board.

There was a slight shudder as Kaidan released the Mako from White Star's belly, then a slightly harder thump as the Mako landed, the impact softened by its mass effect field. Jacob revved the engine, and the Mako's big all-terrain wheels spun, sending the IFV lurching forward toward the distress beacon. Within minutes, they were within spitting distance of the beacon and the Mako sitting idle next to it.

Rick swept the turret around. "Looks clear, Commander," he reported.

"Dismount, Marines!" Shepard ordered, clambering out of the Mako. "Let's go have a look-see. Ash, you've got point. Jacob, take drag."

They approached cautiously, weapons raised.

"Lot of blood, skipper," Ashley observed, "but I only see three bodies."

"I noticed," John murmured as he inspected the Mako they had found, ducking his head under the armored skirt. "This Mako's trashed. Something's dissolved its way through the axles. Jacob, how's that beacon look?"

"This is strange, Commander," Jacob called back. "It's transmitting on a standard Alliance frequency, but this isn't an Alliance fold-comm. Looks custom-built."

"Who the hell can afford a custom fold-comm?" Rick asked rhetorically.

"Forget that," Ashley interjected. "If the Marines didn't set the beacon, who did? I mean, if they were responding to the beacon, where are the people who set it?"

John frowned. "Kaidan, how are the friendly skies?"

"Nice and clear, Commander."

"Good. Get down here. We've got a mystery with this distress beacon, and we could use your tech expertise."

"You got it, Commander."

Within minutes, Kaidan's veritech was landing, legs swinging down into guardian mode. He walked up to the commander and saluted, but John waved him over to the beacon. "I want answers, Kaidan. Ash, police the bodies."

Minutes dragged on as Kaidan studied the beacon. "Weird, Commander. This transmitter's sending out some sort of subsonic signal, and there's a hidden timer on it too."

"A timer?"

"Yeah," the biotic confirmed. "It's set to reactivate after about fifty hours... one local day, actually."

"See if you can shut it down permanently. Last thing we need is to leave that thing running and distracting patrols." John felt something slide uneasily in his gut. Everything about this smelled like a trap... but how? There were no mines, no cover, scans had picked up nothing metallic of significant size buried underground, which eliminated the possibility of buried mecha. What was he missing?

"Aye, Commander, shouldn't be too hard," Kaidan said. A few minutes later, he stood up. "It's done."

"You know, something's weird with these bodies," Ashley commented as she pulled the last of them up next to each other. "I've never seen wounds like these before."

"Commander, we need to leave," Kaidan said suddenly, staring at the bodies.

"Kaidan?" John asked, looking at the biotic curiously.

"Now," he insisted.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" John demanded.

"I've only seen injuries like this once before, sir," he replied. "On Akuze."

It took a moment for the meaning of Kaidan's words to penetrate. By then, it was too late. The ground rumbled, and even as he opened his mouth to give the order to mount up, something burst out of the ground from under the Mako, sending the IFV flipping end over end to land with a sickening crunch.

"THRESHER MAW!"

Weapons came up, and particle beams and micro-missiles streaked up and struck the monstrous creature, but seemed to have distressingly little effect on its thick hide.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Shepard ordered. "Kaidan, get to your fighter!" he added, glancing over only to see that his order had been completely unnecessary. His gaze turned back to the rest of the ground team. "Jenkins, fall back!"

Rick apparently didn't hear him. From where John stood, it looked like the young lance corporal had frozen up as the thresher maw towered over him. It dove, seeking to swallow him whole, and John averted his gaze at the last second, just before its mouth engulfed him, not wanting to see the promising young Marine get eaten. That was no way to die.

BOOM!

Something wet and chunky splattered across John's Cyclone battloid armor, and he looked back, blinking in surprise.

"Oh, yeah!" Rick cheered. He was standing in the center of the gore, making obscene gestures toward the now-headless thresher maw at his feet, the automatic shutters on his shoulder-mounted MAC-95 open and venting heat. "How do you like the taste of that, huh? You overgrown earthworm! You do **not** mess with the MAC daddy!"

John closed his eyes and groaned, a hand coming up to his face, smearing unidentified thresher maw guts on his visor.

* * *

Daniel Belmont now had an office on board the Normandy. True, it was just a storage locker that had been half-emptied, with a computer terminal installed and the remaining crates rearranged into some semblance of a desk and chairs, but it was an office nonetheless. Shepard had insisted. "I want to know where I can find you," he had said.

The commander's suspicions didn't bother the sp- intelligence agent. After all, he had technically stowed away, and that sort of underhanded behavior wasn't exactly conducive to a trusting relationship. So he played along, accepting the makeshift office at face value, and remained where Shepard could find him.

The door slid open, and he looked up. "Commander," he said, rising to his feet. "I still haven't heard word from my contacts on Matriarch Benezia, though I do have some intel on that turian you asked me to track down."

Shepard accepted the OSD. "Thanks, but I'm not here for that," he said, his voice flat, a cold fury in his eyes. He hefted up and planted a fold-comm transmitter on the desk, some sort of custom job. It was covered in stains - some Daniel didn't recognize, others he wished he didn't - and fresher signs of gore.

"What is this?"

"Bait."

"Bait?"

Shepard nodded. "And I want to know who set it. Find out." He turned and left without another word, the door sliding shut behind him. Daniel looked down at the transmitter.

"Okayyy..." he muttered to the now-empty room. "I'll get right on that."

* * *

Rick staggered as Wrex gave him a back slap. "I'm impressed! Not everyone can kill a thresher maw on foot, fewer still with one shot."

"Uhh... thanks?" He could understand why Wrex was impressed. Standard UEDF doctrine for handling thresher maws called for either full-scale battloid or destroid engagement - something akin to 'gator wrestling writ large, except with cannons - or long-range artillery bombardment. He'd taken a chance, scoring the kill shot with his MAC-95 on the unprotected interior of the thresher maw's mouth, rather than its nigh-impervious hide, and it had paid off. Still, the krogan mercenary's praise was a bit disconcerting.

"So, how did you know the inside of its mouth was its vulnerable spot?"

"I, um, didn't," Rick admitted. "I sort of... guessed."

"Ha!" Wrex gave him another painful back slap. "You've really got a quad on you, human. You would have made a **good** krogan!"

"Wrex," a voice intruded, much to Rick's relief. His shoulders couldn't take much more of that.

"Shepard."

"Our resident spook came through for us," the commander said. "He's tracked down Tonn Actus to some rock named Tuntau. Unless we get a lead on Saren or Benezia to follow up on, we'll be heading there as soon as we turn over Bhatia's remains."

The krogan nodded slowly. "Thank you, Shepard."

The commander nodded back, then turned... and found himself cornered.

"Senior Chief," he said, false cheer in his voice. "I was just about to come find you."

"I'm sure, Commander," Alice said, her tone of voice not - quite - sarcastic enough to be insubordinate. "You do realize, sir, that us having to repeatedly repair the Mako only means more and more delays to those Block Twenty upgrades, right?"

"A fact I am intimately aware of," he lamented. "However, Senior Chief, I trust your ability to get things done in a swift and efficient manner." He paused and added, "Besides, I wasn't driving anyway."

* * *

The transfer of Bhatia's remains had gone without incident, the sealed casket passing in solemn silence to the Alliance transport they rendezvoused with. She would then be taken to a base, where her identity would be confirmed, and then transported home.

Tuntau, it turned out, was an uninhabitable rock, though that was due to the unbreathable atmosphere, rather than the climate, which was surprisingly temperate. The abandoned lithium mining complex was well-hidden, but Belmont's intel had narrowed its location down considerably, and it was the only artificial structure on the planet.

With the Mako out of commission - again - they had to drop directly from the Normandy, then hoof it to the compound. Shepard paused on a ridge overlooking the compound and zoomed in.

"Hmm, I make out five sentries... three with rocket launchers in the guard towers and two with what look like LR-90s, DMR configuration, at the main gate," he murmured. "Strange. Where'd they get that kind of firepower?"

Oddly enough, it wasn't the rocket launchers that caused Shepard concern; it was the LR-90s. Although a lot of military-grade weaponry - even mecha - had found their way into civilian hands, most of that had been restricted to Earth itself, having been caused by the planetary government's collapse between the Second and Third Robotech Wars. Getting such weapons off Earth was a challenge in and of itself; to see them in the hands of turian pirates was... disquieting.

"Let's move out."

* * *

**Codex: LR-90 Laser Rifle**

The LR-90 laser rifle is an older generation pulse laser rifle that once served as the mainline combat rifle of the United Earth Defense Force. Unlike mass accelerator weapons and particle beam weapons, the LR-90 is a pure directed energy weapon and therefore capable of completely ignoring a target's kinetic barriers. However, its precision engineering proved to be more sensitive and prone to misalignment than anticipated, requiring constant realignment for optimum performance in the field. These alignment issues plagued the LR-90 until it was phased out in favor of the more rugged, reliable, and versatile Defiant H-303 in 2166.

The LR-90 still remains in service as a designated marksman rifle and sniper rifle in some UEDF special operations units, and although numerous attempts have been made to replace it completely, its range, ability to bypass kinetic barriers, and accuracy when properly calibrated have rendered such efforts unsuccessful so far.

* * *

**Codex: MBR-32 mk II Janissary Main Battle Robot**

The MBR-32 mk II Janissary main battle robot is the mainstay of the United Earth Army and, alongside the MBR-29 mk VI Lochaber, forms the bulk of the Army's full-scale mecha forces. A conventional battloid, the Janissary is an effective, multipurpose infantry mecha, capable of both ground and space operations. At just over six meters tall, the Janissary is well-balanced in terms of firepower, armor, and agility, and its thruster pack grants it limited flight capabilities. It is armed with sixteen Piranha missiles in its chest farings and twin head lasers and can also wield a wide variety of handheld gun pods and other weapons, includings lasers, particle beams, mass accelerators, missile launchers, and more esoteric equipment, such as large-scale excavation and demolition equipment. It is typically issued with an EU-41/90 gun pod, which consists of a tri-barrel particle beam gun mated to an underbarrel 90mm smoothbore mass accelerator cannon in a rifle configuration.

The Janissary's mass effect core provides it with sufficient kinetic barriers for its scale, but its primary purpose is to improve its responsiveness and maneuverability, allowing it to perform feats of acrobatics and agility that defy the expectations of the average observer. Janissary units are, for the most part, infantry units writ large, and they employ many of the same tactics used by their leg-infantry or Cyclone-clad brethren, adjusted for the larger scale. The Janissary also serves well in an engineering role, allowing large-scale construction in a variety of environments.

* * *

**Codex: Tuntau**

Tuntau is an enormous, low-density terrestrial planet, with a thick atmosphere of methane and helium. Despite being nearly 20 AU from Phoenix, the star's great heat and the insulating thickness of the atmosphere make the surface surprisingly temperate.

The crust is mainly composed of sodium and silicon dioxide with deposits of various light metals. During the Relay War, turian mining operations on Tuntau exploded to support the war effort's demands, though the mining boom quickly collapsed with the end of the war. While Tuntau is not habitable, the relative pleasantness of the surface conditions means it remains a popular location for small ships traveling through the Argos Rho cluster to land for drive discharge.


	16. Chapter 16

Title: Protoculture Effect (16/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Kilika," John said, "can you slip past, take out the two sentries by the main entrance?"

The batarian commando scoffed. "I find it insulting that you feel the need to ask. You mean to tell me you aren't going to simply bomb the place flat from high altitude?"

John rolled his eyes and ignored her. "Ashley, target the sentry in the tower on the left. Garrus, you take the right. I'll take the one in the middle. We go on Kilika's signal."

"Aye, skipper."

"You got it, Shepard."

Within minutes, Kilika seemed to materialize between the two door sentries - _I've got figure out how she's doing that; no way that's just skill,_ John thought - and lashed out with her twin blades. John and Ashley's Defiants and Garrus's M-104 Widowmaker cracked simultaneously, and the tower sentries slumped over.

John signalled the team forward.

"How do you want to do this, Commander?" Garrus asked.

"You never breached a compound when you were in C-Sec?" John asked.

"In C-Sec?" the turian repeated. "You're joking, right? Pallin won't let us take down the PMCs, and they're the only ones who could fortify this much."

"I say we go in fast and loud," Wrex suggested.

"We do that, you're taking point," John joked.

"Fine by me."

John paused at that, then shook his head. "Kaidan, see if you can hack the airlock controls."

* * *

In a side room of the prefab housing that served as the entrance to the mine, Oranus was fine-tuning the alignment of one of the human laser rifles Tonn had acquired when he thought he heard something. The turian pirate frowned, checked the energy clip in the laser rifle, and brought it to his shoulder before cautiously approaching the hatch to the airlock that separated the interior of the repurposed lithium mine from the inhospitable surface atmosphere of Tuntau.

The hatch slid open, and Oranus managed a single shot before the charging krogan trampled him beneath his feet.

* * *

"You okay, Kilika?" John asked, eyeing the batarian commando. He still wasn't sure why she even came with them on this mission, to be honest, but she was here, she was his responsibility, and the laser pulse had creased her upper arm.

"I'm fine," she hissed angrily, brushing him off.

John watched her as she slid down a side passage, then shook his head. _Why do I even bother?_

Wrex was leading the charge, bowling his way into another group of pirates, a mix of turians and batarians, while the rest of the squad hurried to support him.

Garrus hung back and looked around as the prefab corridor opened up onto a balcony in a large cavern, the prefab structure giving way toward the mined raw surface of the mine itself, littered with support pillars, other prefab housing units, and various disused pieces of mining equipment. The rest of the squad was already charging down the stairs to the floor of the cavern, heavily engaged. Instead of joining them, Garrus made his way over to the right, to a corner that appeared clear. He laid his Defiant down, propping it up against the balcony, and set up his M-104 Widowmaker sniper rifle on its bipod, then engaged its secondary mass effect field generator, tripling the rifle's mass and increasing its power.

Peering down the scope, he snapped off a quick shot, decapitating a turian pirate and scattering the group he had been leading to flank Shepard's squad.

"Scoped and dropped," he murmured, cycling the bolt of his Widowmaker and ejecting the spent heat sink.

It was, he mused, a testament to the impact the Relay War had on the Citadel. Somewhere along the line, they had gotten complacent. They had thought they were the pinnacle of civilization, and his own species in particular had thought they had known everything there was to know about warfare. The Relay War had been a very rude wake up call: powered armor, DEW small arms that ignored or shredded kinetic barriers, and the ludicrous yet effective mecha... and that was just on the ground. Up until the Relay War, tactical FTL jumps had been considered too dangerous to even try; now, it was among their standard combat maneuvers, which in turn had led to the development of battleships and destroyers.

He targeted a batarian with what looked like an automatic stationary turret and took him down before he could deploy it. He ejected the heat sink and drew a bead on his next target.

Humans were prone to comparing turians to birds, but while there was some superficial resemblance, they weren't really avians, and they were just as prone to not look up as any other landbound species, so when the krogan jumped from the roof of the prefab housing down behind him, Garrus was thoroughly surprised. The turian had good reflexes, however, and was able to roll away before the krogan's oversized shotgun eviscerated him. Garrus's hand flashed up, pistol in hand, the M-3 Predator spitting armor piercing rounds at the krogan, before the pirate backhanded it out of his hand, sending it skittering across the floor.

_Damn it!_ Garrus thought as he frantically crab-walked backwards, away from the krogan as he approached menacingly, a look of sadistic amusement on his face. The krogan calmly ejected a heat sink from his shotgun and leveled at Garrus.

BOOM!

Garrus rolled over and scrambled to his feet, darting back toward the entrance.

"You can't run from me, turian!" the krogan roared, stomping after him.

Garrus scooped up the unfamiliar rifle the turian pirate Wrex had killed earlier and spun in place, bringing it to his shoulder and firing. The rifle flashed, and the krogan stumbled... and fell.

Garrus blinked. He'd never seen a krogan fall to one shot like that before. Cautiously, he approached the krogan, and with some effort, he rolled the krogan over to inspect the damage. A single hole was bored into the krogan's skull, and he could see the burning flesh. The rifle had cauterized the wound even as it destroyed the brain.

He clicked on his radio as he hurried back to his sniping perch.

* * *

"Garrus to all points. I love this rifle. That is all."

John spared a moment to wonder what rifle Garrus was talking about before a laser pulse flashed and killed the slippery little salarian that had been peppering him with submachine gun fire. He resisted the urge to close his eyes and groan - he'd have to warn Garrus about that rifle later - and instead paused to survey the tactical situation.

The pirate band had been caught unprepared and were badly disorganized, and the team was making short work of them. The cavern was almost clear. He noted a faint shimmer before a pair of batarians fell to the ground, blood spurting from their throats. Kilika seemed to be taking extra care to target her fellow batarians, and John was quite sure he didn't want to know why.

"Badassfully: That's far enough."

Something smashed into Rick and sent the lance corporal flying. "Jenkins!" John called. Receiving no answer, he turned and saw the elcor plodding into the cavern. The elcor was clad in heavy armor and had a massive cannon mounted on his right shoulder and a rotary gun on his left.

John snapped his arm up and unleashed a Scorpion IV. The micro-missile rocketed out, but the rotary gun spun to life, blasting the Scorpion, which detonated and engulfed the elcor in hot plasma nonetheless. There was something off about the splash, however. It didn't look right.

The elcor stepped out of the inferno, his shields glowing brightly, and taunted, "Mockingly: Is that all you've got?"

"Damn it," John swore. "That elcor's got vehicle grade shields! Kaidan, overload!"

"Aye, Commander!" the biotic replied. His omni-tool flared as it generated an EMP grenade, and he hurled it at the elcor. Moments after it detonated, Wrex charged.

Crash!

John winced in sympathy.

"Pained cry: Oh, elders, my legs. It hurts. Help. Help. Please. Help."

"Get off me, you oversized lump of meat!"

John facepalmed.

* * *

"In all my years, I've never fought an elcor before," Wrex admitted as he clambered back to his feet.

"I have," Garrus said as he rejoined the group. "Had to take down a biotic elcor serial killer while I was with C-Sec. I could have told you that charge wouldn't have worked."

"Shut up, Vakarian."

John looked over at Garrus and cocked an eyebrow at the LR-90 he was carrying. "So, new rifle?"

Garrus looked at him, a hopeful expression on his face. And John idly wondered when he got used to reading turian facial expressions. "Can I keep it?" he asked.

_Christ, he looks like a little kid with a puppy that followed him home._

"You sure you want to, Garrus? It's pretty finicky," John warned. "You'll be realigning and recalibrating that thing practically every day."

"I can handle calibrations, Shepard," Garrus scoffed. "This rifle is worth it."

"Okay," John said. "Just don't say I didn't warn you. Accuracy goes to hell, and they overheat like crazy if they're not maintained properly."

"I'll keep that in mind."

John shook his head and turned. "Kaidan, how's Jenkins?"

"Concussion, but he'll be fine."

"Good," John said, then waved the squad forward. Kaidan hacked the door, and they charged in, aiming their guns at the lone turian standing there.

Tonn Actus dropped his rifle. "I surrender."

"Smart man," John said. He gestured at Wrex. "This is Urdnot Wrex. I understand you have an heirloom of his?"

Tonn gave a bitter laugh. "**That's** what you're here for? You came in here, killed all my men, and shot up my base for **that?** I sold it months ago."

"Wrong answer," Wrex snarled, grabbing Tonn by the collar.

"It's true," the turian pirate said with a fatalistic shrug. "Kill me if you like. That won't change the truth."

John stepped forward, putting an arm up and waving Wrex back. He turned back to Tonn and said, "I'm a little skeptical a collector such as yourself would ever sell part of his collection."

"I'm a collector, yes," Tonn agreed, "but I'm a collector with expenses. Business has been getting rather more... difficult lately, and those laser rifles might make all the difference, but they aren't cheap. Fortunately, I found a gentleman with such resources and similar tastes, and we made a deal."

"This gentleman have a name?"

"Hock," Tonn answered. "Donovan Hock."

* * *

**Codex: M-104 Widowmaker**

Prior to the Relay War, all modern infantry weapons in Citadel space, from pistols to assault rifles, were micro-scaled mass accelerators, using mass-reducing fields and magnetic force to propel miniature slugs to lethal speeds. The two main restrictions in mass accelerator small arms technology are recoil, which limits the speed and therefore power of the weapon, and the heat generated by friction, which limits both power and rate of fire. For sniper rifles, the power limitation was especially crippling against heavily armored targets, and with the violent arrival of Cyclones and powered armor onto the galactic scene, one shot one kill was no longer possible with existing pre-Sentinel sniper rifles.

Armax Arsenal's solution to the problem was elegant in its simplicity. When designing the M-104 Widowmaker, Armax included a secondary mass effect generator in the stock of the rifle and linked it to the weapon's fire control computer. When engaged, this secondary mass effect field triples the overall mass of the weapon even as the primary mass effect field decreases the mass of the ammunition as normal, and with its bipod deployed, this increased mass allows the sniper to handle more recoil. The fire control computer automatically takes advantage of this and increases projectile velocity, thus achieving greater armor penetration, although this does limit the rifle to one shot per heat sink rather than its standard three.

* * *

**Codex: Space Combat: FTL Strafing**

During the Relay War, the Turian Hierarchy quickly realized that the United Earth Spacy held a significant range advantage in ship to ship combat. Although a mass accelerator round itself had an effectively infinite range, limitations in targeting only allowed an accurate targeting solution out to several dozen thousand kilometers, in comparison to human ship-to-ship weapons, which could effectively engage at hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

The turian fleet quickly adapted, deploying FTL fighters to serve as spotters, employing volley fire, and developing dedicated targeting VIs and predictive software, but the most radical and effective departure from pre-Relay War tactics was the development of "FTL strafing," a tactical application of FTL which involves making a micro-jump to get within close range of a target, striking, and then making another micro-jump to get out. Prior to the Relay War, the Citadel species considered such micro-jumps too risky to attempt in tactical situations, as a slight miscalculation could trigger the safeties integrally built into FTL systems, leaving the ship out of position and vulnerable to counterattack. Although numerous ships were lost to such miscalculations and counterattacks, the unforgiving nature of warfare resulted in the rapid refinement of tactical FTL combat. Now, most Citadel warships have dedicated VIs whose sole function is to calculate tactical FTL micro-jumps, greatly reducing the risks.

* * *

**Codex: Starships: Battleships**

With the development of FTL strafing during the Relay War, it quickly became clear that the traditional dreadnought design philosophy centered around a single spinal mass accelerator cannon was vulnerable to such attacks. In response, dreadnoughts were up-armed with additional broadside armament to discourage FTL strafing by smaller ships. This, in turn, resulted in the development of battleships by the Turian Hierarchy.

In a curiously reversed parallel to the pre- and post-dreadnought battleships of seafaring navies, battleships are dreadnought-sized vessels which forgo the spinal mass accelerator in favor of heavier armor and a more powerful broadside armament of smaller, cruiserweight guns running the full width of the ship, optimizing them for FTL strafing. Although touted as a "dreadnought killer," the effectiveness of the battleship design concept has never been tested in actual combat, only in simulations and war games, but because battleships lack the spinal cannon, they are not restricted by the Treaty of Farixen.

* * *

**Codex: Starships: Destroyers**

During the Relay War, Turian Fleet Command quickly discovered that their standard combat doctrines were poorly suited to confronting the United Earth Spacy. With their weapons outclassed in range, turian ships were most effective engaging at close range via FTL strafing. However, at that range, dreadnoughts and cruisers were easily outmaneuvered, and frigates were too fragile, lacking sufficient shields to repel the mass fighter attacks favored by the Spacy. What the turian fleet needed was a ship as fast and agile as a frigate with the durability and firepower of a cruiser.

In response to this need, the first destroyers flew out of the shipyards in 2160 and saw limited combat at the tail end of the Relay War where they proved their worth. Larger than frigates but smaller than cruisers, destroyers are built with oversized element zero cores designed to be able to quickly divert power from mass reduction to kinetic barriers and vice versa. This grants destroyers considerable flexibility on the battlefield, allowing them to be almost as nimble as a frigate one moment and almost as heavily shielded as a cruiser the next. This versatility, however, comes at a cost; although destroyers are almost as expensive to build as cruisers due to their eezo cores, their spinal-mount main guns are significantly less powerful due to their smaller hulls and shorter overall length.

* * *

**Codex: Thermal Clips**

It was long thought that small arms had plateaued in performance, but the Sentinels proved all theories wrong with the introduction of laser and particle beam small arms. Although the Citadel was initially unable to replicate these weapons, improvements were made to counter their advantages. Of primary concern among turian soldiers engaging Cyclone-armored humans during the Relay War was a lack of sufficient firepower. Although Cyclones are not truly impervious to mass accelerator small arms, the thick armor meant a significant number of rounds were required in order to penetrate, but Citadel troops were forced to deliberately shoot slower to manage waste heat or pause as their weapons vented, which prevented them from bringing down Cycloners in a timely manner.

Enter the thermal clip in 2159. A thermal clip is a cylindrical magazine stacked with disc-shaped lithium heat sinks. The heat sinks absorb the heat generated by the weapon into an endothermic chemical reaction much more efficiently than the conventional integrated heat sinks used prior to the Relay War. Although the chemical change means the heat sinks cannot simply be allowed to cool down and then reused, a well-trained soldier can eject a spent heat sink from a thermal clip with barely a pause and swap out an empty thermal clip for a loaded one in seconds. The disposable nature of thermal clip technology also allows modern weapons to reach the higher power limits of recoil at the cost of having fewer shots per heat sink. Even after the Haven Accords were signed, the Turian Hierarchy still deems the firepower advantage worth the supply issues this inevitably causes in the field, though many weapons still use conventional integrated heat sinks, while others are designed to be easily converted between the two systems in the field.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Biiig codex update this time.


	17. Chapter 17

Title: Protoculture Effect (17/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Rick Jenkins stirred.

"How you feeling, Marine?"

It took him a moment to recognize the voice.

"Like crap, Commander," the heavy weapons specialist groaned. "What the hell hit me?"

"An elcor with a tank gun."

Rick took the effort to crack his eyes open and stare at his commanding officer. "Are you shitting me, sir?" A small part of his mind noted that he was in the Normandy's sickbay.

John shook his head. "Nope. Dead serious. If it weren't for your kinetic barriers and your Cyclone, you'd be dead right now. As it is, the Cyc's practically a write-off."

"Um... does the Senior Chief know yet?"

John had to suppress a chuckle. Jenkins had just been told that he'd narrowly escaped death yet again, and he was worried about the Senior Chief. He was going to be fine.

* * *

"All right, Commander," Daniel groused, tossing the datapad on the table. They were in the Normandy's conference room on deck two. "I've found this Hock guy. He's on Bekenstein." Why the commander had him running pointless intel fetch quests to appease the krogan was beyond him.

"Damn," Shepard swore, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair, a pensive look on his face.

"What's the problem?" Wrex demanded, leaning heavily on the conference table.

"Bekenstein's an Alliance world," Shepard explained. "We can't just storm the place and take the armor. We'd be breaking at least half a dozen laws: trespassing, breaking and entering, burglary, and grand theft, just to start the list."

"Why not?" Wrex asked, straightening up, a bewildered look on his face. "You're a Spectre. Laws don't apply to you."

"**Citadel** laws don't apply to me," Shepard corrected. "The Alliance is its own sovereign nation and does not recognize the Council's authority. In Alliance space, I'm still bound by Alliance law and, as a Spacy officer, the UEDF UCMJ as well."

"Well, I'm not."

"You do know one of my mandates here is to **avoid** a diplomatic incident, right?" Shepard shook his head. "Look, we'll get your family armor back for you, Wrex. We'll just have to do it the slow way. With Tonn's testimony, the Alliance can prosecute Hock, and the armor will be returned once the trial's over."

"That'll take years!"

"You've waited this long, Wrex."

"I thought you had a quad, Shepard."

"I do. I also have a brain and know how to use it," the commander countered. "Going in head first, guns blazing, damn the consequences... that's what got your people into the mess they're in now, isn't that what you told me? Now, if something takes us near Bekenstein anyway, sure, I'll drop you off, then deny any involvement in whatever havoc you cause, Wrex, so long as you don't kill anyone, but unless that happens, we're going through official channels."

Wrex grunted, then turned and stormed out.

"Well," Shepard said, "that went well."

"Why are we doing this again, Commander?" Daniel asked. "I thought we were supposed to be stopping Saren."

"We have no leads," Shepard reminded him, "something your contacts are supposed to be working on, I might remind you. So for right now, we're just killing time anyway, and it never hurts to have a friend."

"And if the krogans, who have been shunned by the Citadel, might possibly see advantages in working with the Alliance, so much the better?" Daniel hazarded.

"I guess." Shepard shrugged, then frowned. "He's a **friend**, Belmont, and yeah, you could look at it that way - it always starts with one - but politics isn't my strong suit."

Daniel nodded. Somehow, despite Shepard's protests, he had a feeling the commander was politically savvy enough to know exactly what the ramifications were. He'd looked up Urdnot Wrex. The krogan was over a thousand years old, biotic, and a well-respected battlemaster from a notable clan. Any one of those rare traits would have allowed Wrex to make a bid for power on Tuchanka; all of them together meant Wrex would just have to go back and say the word, and he'd have the loyalty of his clan and not an insignificant number of others. The intel reports on the krogan painted an unpleasant picture, something similar to the remnant zentraedi problem they'd had on Earth a century and a half ago, except they were far less vulnerable to emotional manipulation. Someone like Wrex could change that, and a rebuilt krogan society would make them a powerful ally if they could be lured over to the Sentinels.

And all Shepard claimed to see was a drinking buddy and a big gun. Somehow, the intel agent doubted that.

* * *

Lieutenant Kilika stared at the **peculiar** object sitting on her tray, trying to puzzle out what it actually was.

"You know, it tastes better if you eat it."

She looked up, noting the helmsman with his own tray. Prodding the Jell-O skeptically, she asked, "This is actually considered food?"

"To some, yes," Joker replied. "To others, it is a holy relic of awesome power." He paused, then added, "It also serves as a material for exotic wrestling rings."

Kilika continued to eye the pilot suspiciously as he sauntered over to another table, mechanical leg braces allowing him to walk unhindered despite his bone deficiency.

She paused and tried to consume the bizarre confection.

* * *

_Missiles, fuel, protoculture,_ John thought as he ticked the appropriate boxes. _Gonna need spare parts for the LR-90 too,_ he mused. It had been three days since Belmont had given his report on Donovan Hock, arms dealer, and Wrex was still dissatisfied.

_Well, tough shit,_ John thought resolutely as he waded through another requisition form. He was in Anderson's cabin - well, technically his cabin now, but he would always think of it as Anderson's - buried in the heart of the ship, a short walk from the CIC, affectionately known as the battle bridge, from where he could direct the ship in combat. He paused as his stomach growled and glanced at the time. He really needed to get something to eat.

The door chimed.

"Enter," he said.

"Commander, I've got something," Belmont announced as the door slid open, stepping into the cabin.

"Well, don't leave me in suspense, Belmont," John said, looking up and putting down the datapad. "What do you have?"

"Binary Helix," Belmont said, holding up an OSD. "It's a mostly human-run corporation, specialized in genetics and cloning tech. It was founded with salvaged zentraedi and Tirolian gear from the first two Robotech Wars."

"And this is important... why?" John asked, accepting the OSD and plugging it into his omni-tool.

"Because I did some digging into Saren's finances," the EIA agent explained, "and it led to Binary Helix. Over the past ten years, Saren's been buying up a majority share in it through various proxies, mutual funds, and shell companies. He now owns sixty-eight percent of the company. I know it's thin, but..."

"'Thin'?" John repeated. "It's anorexic. So he's got controlling shares in a human company that specializes in cloning and genetics? Granted, that's unusual, but the way you describe it, he may not even know he owns it, and he's working with synthetics - hell, the beacon's message was all about synthetics - and ten years is a long time to be planning something like this, especially since no one knew about the beacon until recently."

"I know, I know," Belmont acknowledged, holding his hands up placatingly, "but it's the best lead we've got."

"Fair enough," John admitted. "Where are they headquartered?"

"Mars, but they have a regional headquarters on Bekenstein."

"Well, that's... convenient," John said dubiously. "Still, without any better leads, we'll have to check it out. I guess I'll give Wrex the good news."

* * *

"Thank you for explaining." Joker twisted in his seat and nearly out of it at the sudden voice by his ear.

"Err, no problem," he said.

The batarian woman smirked at him, straightened up, and walked away. Joker stared after her.

"What the shit?" he muttered.

She paused, looked over her shoulder back at him, and added, "Oh, and lieutenant?"

"Yeah?" Joker replied automatically.

"Meow."

"Seems like you've got a fan," Shepard commented as he joined Joker at his table.

"Did you tell her about that 'stray cats' thing?" Joker demanded.

Shepard shook his head. "Not me."

"Then how'd she find out about that?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

Joker looked back over his shoulder as Kilika slinked out of the mess hall. He looked back at Shepard. "Yeah. Not happening."

Just outside the mess hall, Kilika paused to sidestep Tali. "Hey," the quarian suddenly spoke up.

Kilika turned to face her. "Hmm?"

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Bother Joker so much?" Tali clarified. "Do you just enjoy messing with him?"

Kilika paused to think about that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because it's fun," she replied. "It's so easy to provoke a reaction from him, and those reactions are entertaining."

"Isn't that... mean?"

"Maybe to a human, but if he cannot take it, then he is obviously not worth my time, and I will have to find some other means of entertainment." She paused, then added, "Besides, it's nice to know I can have that effect on men."

Tali was even more confused. "But he's human. Don't your people hate each other?"

Kilika looked away. "For the most part... yes. But what does that matter?"

"It seems counterproductive. Maybe even dangerous."

"Like with you, Commander Shepard, and Doctor T'Soni?"

Tali, for once, was grateful for her suit and helmet as she felt her cheeks burn. "That's different!" she protested. "The Migrant Fleet and the Alliance are close allies!"

"I notice you didn't say anything about the Asari Republics. Or, you know, that pesky chirality problem."

"This conversation is over," Tali declared, eyes narrowed. Kilika watched as the quarian turned and stalked off.

This ship was an undisciplined circus compared to a Hegemony ship, but she hadn't had this much fun in years.

* * *

Donovan Hock was a man who recognized opportunity when it knocked. The first human Spectre showing up on Bekenstein and asking to meet with him in a discreet location... well, if that wasn't an opportunity, then nothing was.

"Commander Shepard, allow me to welcome you to Bekenstein," Hock greeted him cordially, noting the krogan bodyguard. While the commander could most assuredly handle himself, having such a visible bit of muscle along was clearly for show as well as fire support.

Hock smiled. It mean Shepard knew how the game was played.

"Thank you, Mister Hock," Shepard greeted him in return, "I'd like to cut right to the chase, if we can."

"Of course, Commander," Hock said, "how can I be of assistance?"

"Well," Shepard said, "I have heard from certain sources that you might have recently come into possession of a certain artifact, an ancient suit of krogan armor belonging to Clan Urdnot."

"I may have," Hock acknowledged. "What might something like that be worth to you, Commander?"

"I was hoping you'd be willing to turn it over out of the goodness of your heart," Shepard said. "I'd hate for something to happen to you."

"Come now, Commander," Hock said, leaning forward, "enough with the idle threats. You may be a Spectre, but this is an Alliance world. You can't touch me. So how about we dispense with the posturing and negotiate like civilized men?"

"I'm not here to negotiate," Shepard said glibly. "Really, I'm just here to arrange the meeting and make introductions. The person who's really interested in the armor is my friend here," he said, gesturing to the krogan looming behind him. "His name's Urdnot Wrex, and really, it's him you should be negotiating with. Besides, I have an urgent appointment with Binary Helix today, and I really must go if I'm going to avoid being late."

With that, Shepard rose to his feet and left the room.

Wrex looked down at Hock... and grinned.

* * *

"Joker," John said as he boarded the Normandy.

"Hey, Commander," the helmsman responded, looking over his shoulder in greeting. "How did things go with the suits?"

"It actually went pretty well."

Joker paused at that, then swiveled his chair around. "Are you sure you're okay, Commander? I mean, you hate corporate politics."

"Wasn't any," John said with a grin. "They were remarkably cooperative. It seems they don't like working for Saren."

"They don't like working for a turian?" Joker asked, rolling his eyes. "There's a shocker." The tensions between humanity and turians had cooled over the years, and given the nature of the project, the Normandy's crew had been carefully screened for any such prejudice, but anti-turian sentiment was still fairly widespread in Alliance space.

"They don't like working for - what was that word Garrus used? - they don't like working for a barefaced turian," John corrected. "I think the fact that he outsmarted them enough to secretly buy majority shareholder status stung more than anything else."

"Huh. Injured pride, racism, I guess whatever helps, right?" Joker mused. "So, where we headed?"

"I'm going to check in on Wrex first, but we'll be heading to the Horse Head Nebula, a planet called Noveria in the Pax system. Saren had them open up a top secret facility there."

"And they just... told you about it?" Joker asked skeptically.

"Apparently, only what's actually in it is proprietary info," John elaborated. "The existence of the facility itself is a matter of public record, or so they tell me."

* * *

**Codex: Binary Helix**

After the renegade zentraedi warrior Khyron captured what had been believed to be the last protoculture resizing chamber in 2013, the need to more properly understand the technology, lest it be lost forever, became apparent. Although the UEDF had some interest in the matter, it was evident that the military was ill-equipped to handle the research, and so, Binary Helix was founded in 2019 with the goal of understanding the technology that produced the zentraedi.

Binary Helix suffered major setbacks with the Second and Third Robotech Wars, but had maintained sufficient off-world investments to recover, relocating their headquarters from the then-occupied Earth to Mars. To this day, Binary Helix remains on the cutting edge of genetic engineering and cloning technology. Although most of their research and the bulk of their profits come from fairly mundane products, such as pest-resistant crops and civilian genetic augmentations, including their popular Mark VII Colonial Augmentation Package, Binary Helix has recently entered public awareness for launching two high profile projects: research into curing the genophage and a project aimed toward improving quarian immune systems.


	18. Chapter 18

Title: Protoculture Effect (18/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

For the umpteenth time, Nerisse Ganthus wondered why she'd gone corporate. So she reminded herself. Like a good little turian, she'd joined the military and served her mandatory term as a recon scout, but after that... well, serving one's people was all well and good, but it didn't pay the bills nearly as well as working for Elanus Risk Control Services did. Even if that meant being assigned to some frozen world in the middle of nowhere.

Still, she missed the closeness she'd had with her comrades in the service.

"Captain Ganthus, this is Noveria Flight Control," the voice blared over her comm. "We've got an unauthorized ship coming in hot, and they're refusing to wave off!"

"Spirits," she cursed as she bolted to her feet. Within seconds, she was charging out, donning the last pieces of her armor, as she caught up with the on-duty dock security team.

"Sit rep," she barked, checking her M-15 Vindicator's thermal clip. The select-fire battle rifle was a company weapon, built by ERCS, and so, here on Noveria, where ERCS handled security, they got them by the crate load. Fortunately, it was actually a quality weapon, deadly accurate and capable of bringing down personal shields and punching through body armor with frightening ease.

"Not sure, Captain," the watch commander, Antoc Valerus, replied. "Flight Control IDed the ship; it's registered as an Alliance frigate, but it looks turian in design."

She nodded in silent acknowledgement. Every species had their own aesthetic in ship design. Salarian ships, for example, tended to have rounded designs that made them look like they'd be as much at home in an ocean as in space, while the asari... Nerisse couldn't find the words to describe asari ships; suffice it to say that they were... very distinctive. Turian ships, on the other hand, favored a sleek, dagger-like design, all speed and power, but human ships tended to be big and boxy, with all the style and subtlety of a brick in the face.

"I hate mysteries," Valerus grumped.

"Shut up and deal with it," she snapped, bringing her rifle up, not quite pointing it at the approaching figures. A trio of humans clad in Cyclone armor led the group, flanked by a krogan and a turian in a heavy set of armor she didn't recognize but had the hallmarks of an Armax design.

"Hold it right there," she ordered. The group stopped. "Identify yourselves."

"Lieutenant Commander John Shepard," the lead human said. "Citadel Spectre. I'm here on Council business."

Nerisse suppressed a derisive snort. *A human Spectre? They really expect me to buy this crap?* Sighting down her rifle at him, she said, "Nice try, but this is a restricted compound. Leave or surrender your weapons."

"Nerisse, is that you?" the turian spoke, the flangeing in his voice quickly identifying who was speaking, despite the face-concealing helmet he wore.

She frowned. She recognized that voice. "Garrus? Garrus Vakarian? You're a long way from the Citadel. What's the matter? C-Sec not paying you enough?"

"Are you kidding?" Garrus snorted. "That's one of the first things you learn at C-Sec. Besides, you're hardly one to talk, Nerisse. You went corporate."

"And now you've gone freelance," she countered. "Alliance, Garrus? Really?"

"I'm not working for the Alliance," Garrus corrected, gesturing to Shepard. "I'm working for a Spectre."

"You expect me to believe that nonsense?" she snorted. "You can turn around and leave if you like, but if you try to go any further without relinquishing your weapons, we will open fire."

Shepard snapped his arm up and replied coldly, "Lady, I'm not the one here staring down the wrong end of a missile launcher."

Nerisse was a little concerned, but up close, she was confident the Vindicator was powerful enough to bring down even a Cyclone's shields and punch through his faceplate with two or three bursts. She could easily pulse the trigger fast enough, and at this range, she wouldn't miss. It was just a matter of getting her shots off before the human fired his missiles, which, admittedly, would be no easy task.

"Don't you people get any news out here, Nerisse?" Garrus asked plaintively.

"Captain Ganthus," a feminine voice sounded over the PA, interrupting the stand off. "Stand down. We've confirmed Spectre Shepard's identity and authority. He and his team are welcome here at Port Hanshan, with or without weapons."

Nerisse felt her mandibles twitch.

"I said 'stand down.'"

She growled. "You heard her," she said grudgingly, lowering the Vindicator. "Stand down." She glowered at the Spectre and waved them past. *You'd better be right about this, T'Lani,* she thought grimly.

* * *

"So," John mused aloud as they walked past the blaring weapon scanners, "your friend there doesn't seem to like me very much, Garrus."

"Probably not," the former C-Sec officer replied. "Nerisse likes to play fast and loose with the rules - kind of a given for a recon scout - but she doesn't like surprises, and Spectres are unpredictable. Spirits, you've already thrown her for a loop just by being a human Spectre."

"Any advice?"

"Just make sure you're far away if you piss her off."

"Don't think I think I can handle myself, Garrus?" John asked, mock hurt in his voice. "You wound me."

"Nerisse and I used to spar, Shepard," Garrus warned. "She's _good_."

"Better than you?" John prodded. He and Garrus had had a few friendly sparring matches, and so far, Garrus was ahead one fall out of seventeen.

"Our longest match went nine rounds before the judge called it a draw," Garrus said with a shrug. "I have reach, but... she has flexibility."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Commander Shepard? I'm Enyra T'Lani, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. Welcome to Noveria."

John turned his attention to the asari who had spoken, the same one who had gotten Garrus's friend to stand down, judging by her voice. "Bit of a cold welcome," he commented.

The asari nodded. "Please understand, Commander, the facilities here on Noveria were developed with the express intention of avoiding Council scrutiny. There are lot of company secrets on this planet, some worth millions of credits, and they are guarded quite jealously."

"Fair enough," John acknowledged, "but we're here on Council business. We need access to Binary Helix's Peak Fifteen facility."

"I see," she said pensively. "You'll need to speak to the administrator." She turned and started walking. "Please, follow me."

* * *

John hated politics. He really, _really_ hated corporate politics. And _especially_ obstructive bureaucrats. Like, say, Administrator Anoleis.

"So, let me get this straight," he said. "You're _denying_ me access, despite my Spectre status?"

"Correct, Commander," Anoleis replied. "All ground traffic is suspended due to the blizzard, and I will not overrule it. Additionally, Noveria is not technically a Citadel world. NDC laws apply here. Numerous non-disclosure agreements, confidential data, and security concerns apply. Spectre authority is... limited."

*Damn,* John thought. *Just when I was beginning to think this whole Spectre thing was actually going to be useful.*

"So, Administrator," he said, "just out of - let's call it curiosity - what exactly would stop me from killing you and anyone who gets in my way, blowing open the garage door with a plasma missile, and commandeering a vehicle to get to Peak Fifteen, regardless of whether or not I have a garage pass?"

"Politics."

John had to admit. Anoleis was one cool customer. He didn't even bat an eye at the threat.

"I'm a Spectre," he pointed out, trying again. "I leave politics to politicians."

"Spectre authority only extends so far," Anoleis replied coolly. "Such blatant violence against civilians would most likely result in your Spectre status being revoked. Possibly even war between the Alliance and the Citadel. It wouldn't be in anyone's best interest."

"All right, next question," John said. "How is it in anyone's best interest to deny me access to Peak Fifteen?"

"Proprietary information, Commander. I'm not at liberty to discuss. Additionally, there are liability issues with the weather."

"You know, it's answers like that that take me back to the 'plasma missile' idea," John muttered. He turned on his heel and left, rejoining his squad outside the administrator's office.

* * *

John was in the conference room on deck two again. With him was the group that was quickly becoming known aboard ship as "Shepard's Irregulars," the mix of specialists, consultants, and liaisons he had gathered together, along with the Marines of his ground team and his XO.

"So," he said, looking across the gathered group, "anyone have any ideas how we can get to Peak Fifteen? Anoleis can cite the weather issue until that damn blizzard blows over, but that storm's going to last a good while."

"I say we go with your plan and shoot our way through," Wrex offered.

Garrus shrugged. "This place is corrupt as it gets, Shepard. Grease a few palms, do a few favors, I'm sure we'll be able to convince someone to let us use their garage pass."

"I have an idea," Jane said, her expression thoughtful. "Alenko, think you can fly your Thor in this weather?"

"The Mako's going to be out of commission for another week," John reminded her.

"I remember," she said, nodding, a small smile on her face.

* * *

Tali muttered something, but although the three of them were pressed up against each other in the Cyclone compartment of Kaidan's veritech, Jane couldn't quite hear her over the wind.

"What?" she called, shifting slightly to look at the quarian. It was a tight fit, even though she had selected the smallest members of the ground team to go with her. The bomb bay had more room in theory, but the various loading mechanisms made it impossible to convert it to carry passengers in a reasonable amount of time.

"I _said_, " Tali shouted back, "'I don't think this was a very good idea'!"

"If you had a better idea, you should have said something when Shepard was taking suggestions!"

"I have to agree with Tali," Liara said, her voice somehow carrying despite her not apparently yelling. "This is very... awkward."

"At least we're all friendly!" Jane offered cheerfully. "Or else this would be a lot _more_ awkward!"

"Just how friendly do you want to get?" Liara asked, eyebrow cocked curiously.

"I'd need a nerve-stim program to get any friendlier," Tali grumbled.

"What?"

"I _said_... oh, nevermind!"

* * *

The door to the captain's cabin chimed.

"Enter," John responded automatically. The door slid open to reveal a familiar turian.

"Hey, Commander, you busy?" Garrus asked.

"Not really," he replied. "Just submitting a request to get us a shuttle."

"Yeah, about that," Garrus said, "why don't we have one already anyway?"

John shrugged. "The Normandy's fully transatmospheric, and we've got the Mako - well, had the Mako - for combat drops, so we shouldn't have needed one."

"I see."

"Something I can help you with, Garrus? I'm supposed to meet Miss T'Lani in an hour."

The former C-Sec officer looked away. "It won't take long, Shepard. It's Nerisse. Or Captain Ganthus, I should say. There's been an increase in smuggling lately, and since I'm here, she wants my help shutting it down, thinks a new perspective is just what they need."

"And you think I can help," John said flatly.

"You do have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, Commander, and she might be able to grant us that garage pass."

John nodded thoughtfully. "So, what's being smuggled?"

"Lots of things, really," Garrus replied, "but she's mostly worried about restricted weapon mods. Noveria isn't like the Citadel. Security here depends heavily on limiting access to weapons tech."

"Hence the warm welcome we received," John said dryly.

"Yeah." Garrus gave the turian equivalent of a frown. "What is it, Shepard? You haven't argued one bit yet."

"Wellll..." John said, reaching under his desk and picked up a package, placing it on his desk. "As it happens, while I was shopping for supplies, a certain storekeeper in there asked me to use my Spectre status to bring this in past customs."

"Really, now?" Garrus said, his mandibles twitching in amusement. "Just like that, you have it all wrapped up?"

"I think there's more going on here than we know about," John said, nudging the package, "more than just some smuggling ring looking to make a quick buck."

"What do you mean?" Garrus asked. "What is it, exactly?"

"High explosive ammo," John answered. "This is some serious firepower we're talking about here, Garrus. Can your girlfriend handle this?"

"High explosive ammo?" Garrus repeated. "Nerisse wouldn't have the armor or firepower to deal with that. And she's not my girlfriend."

* * *

Jane led the team into the garage at Peak 15. The chamber was positively cavernous, and the lights were flickering. Catwalks were suspended across the room, accessible by ladders and stairs.

"This place is huge," Kaidan muttered. "If the doors weren't jammed, I could bring my Thor in here with room to spare. Wonder why they built the garage so big?"

He got his answer in the form of something slamming into the ground at his feet, the shockwave shattering his kinetic barriers and knocking him off his feet.

"Take cover!" Jane ordered, matching actions to words as she and Liara dove left, taking refuge behind a heavy-duty cargo hauler. Tali dove right, crouching behind the questionable cover of a forklift, and Liara stretched out a hand, then clenched her fist and yanked it back. Biotic energy swirled and pulled Kaidan toward the relative safety behind the cargo hauler.

"That's one hell of a big gun," Jane muttered. "More krogan mercenaries?"

Liara peered around their cover. A flash of light briefly lit the far end of the garage as the air itself seemed to ignite from friction. Another shell tore down toward them, smashing into the cargo hauler, lifting it off two of its wheels before gravity reasserted itself.

Liara ducked her head back.

"That's... not a krogan," she declared, her eyes wide.

* * *

**Codex: Noveria**

Noveria is a small, frozen terrestrial world, barely habitable by conventional definitions. It is privately chartered by the Noveria Development Corporation, a holding company founded and funded by two dozen major high-technology companies in Citadel space, including Elanus Risk Control Services and Synthetic Insights. The NDC leases out labs to perform research too dangerous or controversial to be performed elsewhere.

Since Noveria is not technically a Citadel world, the NDC is free and willing to issue such leases to Alliance-based corporations as well, much as the Alliance and Citadel alike would prefer otherwise. There still remains, however, prejudice between Alliance and Citadel species; for example, although a human corporation like Binary Helix may lease a lab on Noveria and secure it with their own human security, ERCS, which NDC contracts to provide security for the planet, is no more likely to hire humans on Noveria than anywhere else.

Given Noveria's unique situation, it is the source of many wild conspiracy theories throughout both Alliance and Citadel space.


	19. Chapter 19

Title: Protoculture Effect (19/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"Here," Nerisse said, handing Shepard an ammo block. "I had this fabbed after you told me what you found. It's got a tracer embedded in it, and it's designed to mimic high-ex ammo for all but the deepest scans, unless someone actually tries to fire it."

Shepard nodded. "And our end-user can't exactly risk test firing it without alerting us anyway."

"Exactly."

"Any suspects?"

"Too many," she growled. "The krogan's a good bet, as always, but any asari could easily be an undercover commando, and every turian here has the training to use this kind of firepower. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to find a few STG agents here either, retired or otherwise. This planet's crawling with corporate backstabbing."

"'A wretched hive of scum and villainy,'" Shepard quoted. Nerisse gave him a blank stare. "Never mind," he said quickly. "So, I guess I'd better get this to Opold."

"I'll have a team standing by," she said. "This had better work, Shepard."

"Hey, it's your tracer," he pointed out. "By the way, what's the story with Lorik Qui'in?"

"Qui'in?" she repeated, surprised. "He runs Synthetic Insights's Noveria branch, but he's under investigation for corruption. Why?"

"Heard the name," he answered, a little evasively in her opinion. "Just thought I'd ask."

* * *

"Goddess! I didn't really think such a creature could be real!" Liara blurted out, but Jane wasn't listening. Instead, she was thinking.

Of all the things she could have predicted - geth, krogan, hell, at this point, she wouldn't have been surprised to find a Karbarran or a Haydonite among Saren's lackeys - a fully macronized zentraedi warrior was not one of them.

_Where in the galaxy did Saren even **find** a full-blooded zentraedi?_ she wondered. There hadn't been any pure strains in close to a century and a half - the zentraedi as a separate subspecies had been effectively extinct since the 2030s, regardless of the cultural revivals over the decades since - and the odds against finding someone who had all the right genetic markers for macronization were astronomical. And even after finding someone who **could** be macronized, how did Saren get his hands on a protoculture resizing chamber?

"This cover isn't going to last very long!" Kaidan warned as the cargo hauler took another hit, once again nearly flipping over them.

That broke her train of thought. This wasn't the time to ponder the threat; it was the time to deal with it.

"Tali!" she called.

"Not possible!" the quarian was ranting. "The physics are impossible! It **can't** be real!"

"Tali, snap out of it!" Jane called again, her voice sharp and commanding. Once she had her attention, she asked, "Can you sabotage his gun?"

"Negative!" Tali said, shaking her head. This was all so surreal. "It's a conventional slugthrower, all mechanical and moving parts, chemical propellant, no electronics."

"Damn it," the commander hissed. "Liara, singularity. Let's see if we can disarm him. Alenko, Tali, focus on overloading his shields if you can."

Liara glowed with a blue biotic aura as a swirling mass of dark energy materialized above the zentraedi's gigantic rifle, tugging on the weapon. A biotic pulse arced from Jane's hands and up into the bottom of the rifle's barrel, smacking it up and off target, but the giant maintained a firm grip on the weapon. Electricity crackled over the zentraedi warrior as Kaidan and Tali fired EMP bursts at him from their omni-tools.

_Now or never,_ Jane thought. She concentrated, and her biotic implant tingled with power. What she was doing now was something the EIA had observed asari commandos performing, a dangerous stunt that had been analyzed and dissected... but rarely successfully replicated by human biotics.

But Jane was no ordinary human biotic. She was N7.

Suddenly, she was enveloped in dark energy and shot toward the zentraedi's throat like a glowing blue meteor. She impacted with the force of a cannon... and flailed for something, anything, to arrest her fall. Her charge had taken her right into the zentraedi's kinetic barriers. Weakened by Kaidan and Tali's EMP bursts, the kinetic barriers shattered under the impact, but they still stopped her some distance from her intended target. Latching onto the zentraedi's rifle, she hauled herself up and ran up his arm without allowing herself time to think. The Interplanetary Combatives Academy had forced her to learn to strategize during combat - an invaluable skill for a leader - but on her own, she did her best when she fought on instinct.

Her Defiant was fitted with a rifle stock, forward pistol grip, and wide-dispersal muzzle adapter, optimized for the close quarters combat she favored. It was with this weapon that she shot the zentraedi in the face. A Defiant in this configuration - essentially an electromagnetic particle shotgun - was devastating against most infantry, but against a person over thirty feet tall, even this was hardly a death blow. Still, the impact was enough to knock his head back, at which point, Jane hurled a Mark 14 grenade, hooking it into his mouth, then leaping off and scrambling for one of the catwalks that were suspended throughout the room. For all their size and toughness, zentraedi were still flesh and blood.

It took a few minutes for the team to regroup, gathering near the gigantic corpse. Tali had her omni-tool up, scanning the zentraedi as she muttered questions about how he could even support his own weight.

"Jesus, Commander," Kaidan said, shaking his head, "and I thought Shepard pulled some crazy stunts."

"You haven't seen us at our worst yet, Lieutenant," she replied, a tired grin on her face. A charge always took a lot out of her.

"I'm impressed," Liara said. "I didn't think human biotic amps were advanced enough to support a biotic charge."

"They're not," Jane said between deep breaths. She turned and stumbled. Kaidan reached out and caught her arm before she could fall. "Shit," she swore as she forced herself back upright.

"Are you all right, Commander?" Kaidan asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," she insisted, waving him off. "Just... just gimme a minute."

She knew it was probably asking for too much, given the racket they had just made, but until she had a moment to catch her breath, she was in no condition for another fight.

"Here," Kaidan said. Jane blinked and found herself inhaling the unmistakeable aroma of chocolate...

"What-?"

"I keep it for emergencies," he explained. "I know what it's like to overdo it on the biotics. I've found it helps a bit more than the rat-pack energy bars."

"Thanks," she said, accepting the candy bar, wolfing it down before she knew it. She had always stuck with the standard energy bars that came packaged in with the Alliance-issue ration packs, but had never found them particularly helpful after a biotic charge. They drained her in a way most biotics didn't.

Judging by how she felt at the moment, the secret, it seemed, was chocolate.

She looked around warily, waiting for the inevitable counterattack, and she was not disappointed. "Krogan!" she called. "Liara! Alenko! Lift!" She stretched her arm out, and together, the three biotics glowing blue with dark energy. The three charging krogan suddenly lost traction as the dark energy lifted them off the ground, their momentum carrying them over the group. The quartet aimed their weapons into the air, blasting away at the krogan as they sailed overhead.

* * *

"And you want me to go in and get that evidence," John finished for Lorik Qui'in. Apparently, Anoleis was as dirty as they came and had a few of Captain Ganthus's people in his pocket, something she probably would want to know about. Qui'in had evidence that incriminated Anoleis, but the administrator had trumped up corruption charges and was using the dirty rent-a-cops to search for said evidence.

_God I hate corporate politics,_ he thought. Again. "And if I do get it for you?"

"Well," Qui'in replied, "I understand you're trying to get to Peak Fifteen. I can give you my garage pass, overrule the weather lockdown."

"Uh huh," John said, nodding. "Not what I meant. What exactly are you planning on **doing** with that evidence once you have it?"

"I would... use it. Wisely and with great care," Qui'in assured him.

"You're going to blackmail him."

"Think about it, Commander," Qui'in said, leaning back, ignoring the accusation. "You don't owe a thing to anyone on this planet, least of all Anoleis. Now, I've told you where to find the evidence; all you need to do now is get it and give it to me. Or you can allow Anoleis's corruption continue unchecked. The decision is yours. If you want that garage pass... well, I'll be waiting."

* * *

The main doors leading out of the garage and into the facility - the zentraedi-scaled ones - were sealed, forcing the team to take to the catwalks and go through the human-scaled doors. The doors opened into what was clearly a security checkpoint: To the left was a window view of the other side of the zentraedi-scaled doors, and to the right was a mirrored wall that was almost certainly one-way. Gore and signs of gunfire covered the checkpoint. A lot of someones had been killed and thoroughly mulched here.

"I think we're late to the party, Commander," Kaidan said as they cautiously crossed the room.

A ker-thunk and whirring sounded behind them, and they spun, Liara and Kaidan glowing blue, Tali's omni-tool flaring. Jane, for her part, simply raised her Defiant to her shoulder. A hidden panel in the ceiling had dropped down, revealing twin gatling guns which were spinning furiously.

"Why aren't we dead?" Tali asked after a moment's hesitation.

"I think it's out of ammo," Jane said, finally.

"I find that... very disturbing," Liara murmured. Jane had to admit that the asari had a point. Even with the vicious rate of fire twin gatling guns like these could achieve, the idea that any weapon - especially fixed defenses like these - could actually run out of ammo was mind-boggling.

"What the hell happened here?" Kaidan asked, voicing the question on everyone's minds. "And why are those guns pointing the wrong way? Is this a lab or a prison?"

"They must be afraid their specimens might get loose," Jane mused. "I mean, they've gotten one pure strain zentraedi somehow. Maybe they're cloning them, both sizes."

"Thanks, Commander," Kaidan said dryly. "My nightmares were getting too tame as it is."

"Anytime, Lieutenant," she retorted with a smirk. "Just say the word, and I'll find something less tame to fill your dreams with."

He coughed.

They continued out of the security check point and onto another catwalk in yet another zentraedi-scaled corridor. Jane squinted down at the massive pile of blood and gore on the floor and frowned. "Something's not right with that body," she said, before heading for a ladder and sliding down. The team followed her soon after.

Her gaze swept across the fallen zentraedi warrior. "No gunshot wounds... no laser burns..." she murmured.

"Something ripped him apart," Kaidan said. "Up close and personal."

* * *

After discussing the matter with Captain Ganthus, John took Garrus and Ashley with him to the Synthetic Insights office. The office was under lockdown, but the idea that some of her subordinates were on the take positively infuriated the turian woman. A brief explanation from Garrus on turian culture explained why.

"So... she's upset because it's her responsibility, and she feels she should have caught it?"

"That's essentially it," Garrus replied. "Let's see how this plays out."

"I'm Commander Shepard," John said as they approached the turian guarding the entrance.

"Everyone on the planet knows who you are," the security officer grunted sourly. "The captain called ahead," he continued, waving them in. "Damn Spectres," he muttered as they walked past.

John pretended not to hear as he led his team past. The sour looks he got from the ERCS personnel inside made it clear that Qui'in was onto something, but unless they tried to pull something or Qui'in's evidence implicated them, there wasn't much he could do.

* * *

Jane had chosen to take point, but in the end, it didn't really matter. The corridor was a no-frills affair, lined with pipes and conduit along the ceiling, and it was from there that it attacked.

"It" was some sort of bug creature, and it dropped down in the middle of the group, slashing at a shrieking Tali.

One shotgun blast and three biotic warps later, they were looking at its remains.

"So..." Jane said, "anyone want to tell me what the hell we just killed?"

"Aside from 'a creature from a bad horror movie,' I've got nothing," Kaidan replied. The two humans looked at their alien companions.

Tali shrugged and offered, "Creepy spider monster?"

"I'm an archaeologist, not a biologist," Liara reminded them. "I have no idea what this thing is."

"You know," Jane pointed out, "there's probably a lot more than one. This critter didn't gut that zentraedi we found all by its lonesome."

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Kaidan griped.

"I **hate** spiders," Tali murmured with a shudder.

"Hey, cheer up," Jane said. "It can **always** be worse. I mean, the place could be full of rats. Or, you know, on fire."

"Thanks," Kaidan said dryly. "That makes me feel **so** much better." He knew the attitude was her way of dealing with stress - the chocolate probably contributed too - but it still unsettled him.

"You're welcome," she chirped - chirped! - cheerfully.

"That's it," he declared. "No more chocolate for you."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, Lieutenant. Let's move out."

* * *

**Codex: Humans: Zentraedi**

The zentraedi were a sub-species of humans developed by the Robotech Masters to serve as their primary military force. They were genetically engineered to withstand the vacuum of space and relatively severe injuries for limited periods, but the two primary distinctions of the zentraedi sub-species were the protoculture that infused their physiologies and a series of genetic markers that allowed them to undergo a forced-growth cloning and mental transfer process known as macronization. Macronization resized zentraedi to much larger proportions, an average of between nine and twelve meters in height, and granted them denser bone and muscle structure which, along with the protoculture in their systems, allowed them to function at that scale.

The Robotech Masters' manipulation of the zentraedi also extended to their culture and society, forbidding personal interaction between genders and fostering an artificial history that extended much further than the sub-species' true age. During the First Robotech War, the zentraedi were reintroduced to many of the cultural elements they were denied. After the defeat of Dolza's Main Fleet, several zentraedi ships and crews remain unaccounted for, but most of the zentraedi who were allied with the humans underwent micronization and were integrated into human society. Since then, cultural dilution and interbreeding with the humans of Earth have rendered the zentraedi effectively extinct, although there is a strong zentraedi subculture on most major human worlds.


	20. Chapter 20

Title: Protoculture Effect (20/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

Peak 15 was an impressive facility, but largely dormant. The team had found a single protoculture resizing chamber, damaged beyond repair, as well as a few cloning tanks. They had, fortunately, not run into any other full-size zentraedi, but plenty of the strange bug creatures.

However, it appeared that this was only part of the facility. According to the VI, a subway tram led to Rift Station, and Benezia had ridden it over before it went offline. Getting it back online while getting shot at by geth or swarmed by the bug creatures had been a harrowing experience.

"Departing Central Station. Destination: Rift Station."

Now, however, they were riding the tram over.

"So, Tali," Jane broke the long silence, "what are your intentions toward John?"

"Wh-what?" the quarian stammered.

"Don't play coy," she teased. "I've seen how you look at him, unlike, say, the good doctor here who doesn't seem to realize how distracting she can be."

Liara blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

Jane ignored Liara's question and prodded, "Well, Tali?"

"How is that any of your business?" Tali demanded.

"Just watching out for my ex-husband."

There was a long, pregnant pause.

"I'm sorry," Tali said. "I think my translator glitched. Your **what?**"

"My ex-husband," Jane repeated.

"There's a story here, isn't there?" Kaidan asked.

Jane shrugged. "Not that much of one. After we got accepted into N-school, we headed out to celebrate, got drunk off our asses, and woke up with matching tattoos and wedding rings. We made it about, oh... three months before we decided it wasn't going to work out." She paused, then added, "Stuck it out another month to make sure Jimmy didn't win the pool."

"'Tattoos'?" Tali asked.

Jane gave her a saucy grin. "Sorry, no previews, but if you play your cards right, John might just show you."

Tali could feel her face heat up at the human's tone of voice, but she shook that off. "No, I mean... what's a tattoo?"

"Ah." Jane was taken aback. "Um. I'll explain later."

"Do you regret it?" Liara asked.

Jane mused over that a moment. "Sometimes," she said finally.

"The marriage or the divorce?" Kaidan asked.

Jane didn't reply.

"Or were you talking about the tattoo?" he asked.

"I'd never regret that tattoo," was her instant reply.

Kaidan leaned back against the wall of the tram, crossing his arms. "Now you've got me curious."

"Play your cards right..." she said, offering a wink.

Kaidan coughed, but thankfully, he was saved from having to respond by the tram arriving at its destination.

"So," he said instead, "what gets me is, if they were cloning zentraedi in the outer facility, what the hell were they doing on this end of the tramway?"

"That's a good question," Jane said. "I suspect those bug creatures have something to do with it. What say we find out?"

"Aye, ma'am."

The fire team advanced cautiously, but aside from a few mangled bodies, bullet holes, particle burns, and spent weapons, there was precious little waiting for them. A little exploration led them to an elevator, the only exit that wasn't completely locked down.

A round zipped past Tali's head as the elevator doors opened, and the team exploded into the room, weapons and biotics at the ready.

"Stand down, damn it! Stand down!"

Jane's eyes tracked. Crates and beds had been moved to form a makeshift barrier, behind which crouched several people with fairly basic weapons, mostly M-8 Avengers with a handful of Micro-FALs mixed in.

"Sorry," the bald man who had given the order offered. "We had no idea what was in that lift. I'm Captain Ventralis, Binary Helix Security Services."

"Lieutenant Commander Hunter, UE Spacy," Jane introduced herself, then glanced back at the elevator she and her team had just emerged from. "Those things can use elevators?"

"Hell if I know," Ventralis rubbing a hand over his head, "but at this point, it wouldn't surprise me, and I'm not taking any chances. One minute, I'm working security for a top secret research project, the next, I find out I've actually been working for a real life Weyland-Yutani, and we're all fighting for our lives. Tends to put things in perspective."

Jane suppressed a snort at the old movie reference. "So I'm guessing you don't know what they are."

"Not a clue, beyond 'something the squints cooked up in the hot labs.'"

"I see," Jane murmured. "Listen, we're looking for an asari, Matriarch Benezia. Have you seen her?"

"Yeah, I saw her," Ventralis replied. "She went deeper into the facility with a cadre of asari commandos. Supposedly, she's here to clean up this mess, though I don't know how the hell she found out about it so quick. We haven't even had contact with Central Station since everything went down."

"And that didn't strike you as odd?"

Ventralis shrugged. "Hell yeah, it struck me as odd. If it didn't, I wouldn't have mentioned it, but I'm not going to question anything that helps our chances of getting out of here alive unless I really, really have to. I'm counting my blessings as it is."

Before she could question him further, however, she heard something above and behind her. Turning, she saw a ventilation grill suddenly fall from the ceiling, clattering to the floor, quickly followed by another swarm of the bug creatures.

* * *

John was frustrated, but in retrospect, he really should have seen this coming.

Once the package had been delivered, Nerisse had shut him out of the investigation and then had the gall to deny him a garage pass until the investigation was complete. Garrus was no help, but then again, there were probably personal issues at stake there too. Still, he was worried about Jane.

Well, no, that wasn't quite right. Jane could take care of herself, and Alenko was a Marine. He was worried about Liara and Tali. They were civilians, after all.

So, at the moment, he was poking around the Normandy, looking for something to do. Finally, he made his way to Belmont's "office," only to find the intelligence agent deeply engrossed in something on his computer.

"What are you looking at?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Belmont looked up. His eyes flicked back to his monitor for a moment, and met John's gaze and replied, "Oh. Intel reports from the Vol Protectorate. Looks like trouble in paradise."

That piqued John's interest. "What do you mean?"

Belmont waved negligently to the report on his monitor. "Their First Mechanized Infantry Regiment was on combined arms maneuvers with a turian unit, but... well, some turians don't have much respect for volus military, and it looks like they reacted a bit... forcefully... to being ridiculed."

John grimaced. "How bad is it?" he asked. Since the Vol Protectorate was a client state to the Turian Hierarchy, this was technically an internal matter, but he was Spectre, expected to get involved in anything that threatened "galactic stability," and this definitely counted.

"The turians are calling for blood, and the volus are standing their ground," Belmont replied, shaking his head. "Someone's gonna give - and I'm not sure I'm willing to bet on who - or it's gonna get ugly. We're talking economic sanctions, embargoes, maybe even war."

"'War'?" John echoed, not quite believing what he was hearing. "Between the turians and the **volus?** I thought the volus relied on the turians for defense."

"They do, but they have a decent bombing fleet, and their new mechanized infantry isn't something to sneer at. Their Mandrill battloid's pretty impressive for someone so new to the mecha game."

"Still, that'd be a short war."

"The turians had better hope so," Belmont snorted, "or they're going to find themselves running out of ammo and fuel before it's over. Who do you think supplies the turian war machine?"

John leaned back, turning this development over in his mind. The volus, he knew, weren't culturally predisposed to military solutions, but as a species, they probably benefited more from a mechanized combat doctrine than any of the other Citadel species. He idly debated asking Belmont if the EIA was planning on doing anything to... **prod**... the disagreement. The Vol Protectorate was an industrial and economic powerhouse that could prove a beneficial ally if they could be swayed away from the turians, much as the Migrant Fleet had with their engineering expertise.

He massaged his temples.

_God, I hate politics._

* * *

"There are times," Jane murmured, "I really, really hate scientists."

"Hey!"

"Not you, Liara."

"Archaeology is a science!"

Kaidan threw a biotic warp at another rachni soldier - and hadn't that been a pleasant surprise? - and asked, "Ladies, is now really the best time for this conversation?" They had learned what they were fighting from Dr. Tartakovsky, who they had met entering the hot labs; sadly, he had only survived long enough to identify the creatures and tell them how to activate the neutron purge.

"Spiders! Spiders, spiders, spiders, spiders!"

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

"DIE!"

"Alenko's got a point, Doc," Jane said. "That neutron purge isn't going to wait for us." She turned to the cackling quarian. "Tali, come on!"

Tali showed a rare moment of spite as she stomped particularly hard on the remains of one of the rachni workers before following.

* * *

John marched into Nerisse's office, glad to finally be getting some answers. "So, what did you find?" he asked without preamble.

She looked up at him. "Right down to business, then. I like that. We tracked the package to a krogan bounty hunter, name of Weyrloc Inamorda. Seems he was contracted to assassinate Administrator Anoleis."

"Any idea who hired him?"

"Some," she said, standing up. She clasped her talons behind her back as she began to pace. "Based on evidence we found on Inamorda's omni-tool, we've detained the Synthetic Insights branch manager, Lorik Qui'in, but something about this doesn't sit right."

"You're right," John said, folding his arms. "I told you Qui'in contacted me, said he had evidence Anoleis was accepting bribes and asked me to retrieve it for him."

She nodded. "I remember, but he could have ordered the hit once he lost the evidence."

"He intended to blackmail Anoleis," John pointed out, shaking his head. "No point in wasting a potentially useful asset, and once he thought he had me hooked in, he would have called it off. It doesn't add up."

"Agreed," she said, tapping her chin pensively, "and Qui'in's still denying any involvement. I don't know how much you know about turian culture, Commander, but with him still denying it after being confronted, I'm inclined to believe him."

"So he's being framed." It was a statement, not a question.

"Exactly," she said. "The question is... why?"

"Hmm..." John considered that, then asked, "Can I see a list of ships currently docked here?"

* * *

**Codex: FAL-2 Series Full Auto Laser**

The venerable FAL-2 series full auto laser is perhaps the oldest directed energy weapon still in common use in the Alliance. Dating back to 2027, the FAL-2 laser carbine served in the United Earth Defense Force for close to fifteen years before being phased out in favor of the Mars-Gallant H-90 particle beam gun, but it remains popular in the private security and civilian markets. The FAL-2 was designed to be a reliable workhorse weapon for use in all theaters of combat, so its rugged design emphasizes simplicity and reliability over accuracy and power.

The FAL-2 is capable of being powered by either a flat protoculture cell or more conventional energy clips, and in 2049, this versatility inspired Terrence Kedar, founder of Kedar Armory, to purchase the design and begin manufacturing a wide selection of variants of the FAL-2. Although advancing armor technology has since rendered personal laser weapons unpopular, the FAL-2's affordability, rugged reliability, ease of maintenance, and myriad variants has ensured the FAL-2 series will continue to serve in the private sector for decades to come.

In 2179, Hahne-Kedar made an exceptional profit selling FAL-2 variants to Citadel clients. Although outdated by Alliance standards, the FAL-2 still represented a tremendous leap forward over pre-existing Citadel laser technology, or so it was believed. Unfortunately for Citadel investors and weapon manufacturers, while the FAL-2, as a laser, bypasses kinetic barriers, its relatively poor performance against body armor means it offers little advantage over comparable mass accelerators against any properly equipped opponent, and when scaled up, the FAL-2 proved to be no better than pre-existing Citadel laser weaponry, though it did provide insight into the development of personal DEWs.

Popular variants of the FAL-2 include the compact Mini-FAL; its even smaller cousin, the Micro-FAL, which sacrifices the ability to accept flat protoculture cells; and the much larger, full-sized assault rifle variant, the FAL Plus, with integrated folding bipod, digital scope, variable focus lenses, and tactical rail mounts for additional attachments. In the Terminus systems, the FAL-2 and its variants are also known as "suit shredders" for their notable effectiveness against quarians, who tend to rely on powerful shields and incorporate only light armor into their environmental suits.

* * *

**Codex: T-CE-LL-07 "Mandrill" Combat Lifter**

The Vol Protectorate's T-CE-LL-07 combat lifter - Alliance reporting name, "Mandrill" battloid - is perhaps the most advanced mecha in mass production by the Citadel. Developed and produced by Elkoss Combine, the Mandrill was not an attempt at reverse-engineering Alliance mecha; rather, it was developed as an evolution of existing heavy industry automation technology already in common use within the Vol Protectorate. Elkoss Combine first developed the G-CE-LL-01 through G-CE-LL-03 powered load lifters as technology test beds and released the CE-LL-04 and CE-LL-05 lifters as general-purpose civilian industrial mecha for handling hazardous materials and heavy cargo before selling the concept to the Vol Protectorate's armed forces.

Although the Vol Protectorate relies on the Turian Hierarchy for defense, it still supplies auxiliary troops to serve in support of turian military forces, primarily in a logistics and engineering capacity. The T-CE-LL-06 "Manatee" was adopted in limited numbers by these auxiliary units and proved itself effective in repelling pirate attacks. In light of this success, the Vol Protectorate formed the First Mechanized Infantry Regiment to serve as the first volus front-line combat unit in centuries, issuing them the new and improved T-CE-LL-07 combat lifters.

Standing just over three and a half meters tall, the Mandrill lacks the imposing battlefield presence of an Alliance battloid, but they can be fielded in many more situations. It utilizes a "smart fluid" hydraulic system with a proprietary medium that expands or contracts when certain electrical charges are applied; this lends the Mandrill a strength and responsiveness comparable to Alliance mecha. The Mandrill boasts powerful shields and is built around a fully-sealed cocoon-like cockpit nestled in the chest, behind several layers of heavy armor. This cockpit is fully pressurized for volus, and the pilot's own environmental suit serves as an additional layer of protection.

In its standard configuration, the Mandrill's primary weapon is an anti-armor mass accelerator cannon mounted to the right shoulder, supplemented by a surface-to-air missile launcher on the left shoulder and a wrist-mounted, double-barreled light machinegun on each arm for anti-personnel work.


	21. Chapter 21

Title: Protoculture Effect (21/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"You do not know the privilege of being a mother," the asari matriarch declared, gazing at the creature held within the transparent tank before her. "There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Benezia finally turned her attention to the squad, taking a few regal steps toward them. "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation."

Jane looked at her in confusion, then looked around, finally focusing on Liara. "Oh. Right. I, um, actually hadn't thought of that," she admitted. "I brought Liara along because she was small enough to fit with me and Tali in Kaidan's veritech."

"Indeed? What have you told them about me, Liara?"

"What could I say, mother?" Liara retorted. "That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?"

"Have you faced an asari commando unit before?" Benezia asked rhetorically, ignoring her daughter's outburst. "Few humans have."

Jane met Benezia's gaze. "I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter."

"I now realize I should have been stricter with her," she said as she began to glow. Her arm swept out, and the squad found themselves flying across the room and into the far wall as doors slid open to reveal asari commandos.

Coruscating beams of glowing blue-green light stabbed out of the smoke, crackling with energy, lightly scoring the wall behind them as the team dove for cover behind some crates.

"What is that?" Liara wondered.

"Judging by the sound, appearance, and scoring," Kaidan said, "I'd say it's a particle beam."

"I don't remember any **green** particle beam rifles out there, Alenko," Jane pointed out.

"Different frequency," he said. "That's not from the black market."

"Great," Jane grumbled. "So the asari have managed to build their own p-beams." Letting her Defiant hang from its sling, she leaned out of cover and reached out with her left hand, then yanked it back, clenching her fist. One of the asari commandos was enveloped by biotic energy and suddenly flew toward her. Jane smirked as she brought her right hand into play, swinging it forward in a biotically-charged haymaker that collided with the asari's chin with a distinctive "crack!" The asari collapsed bonelessly to the floor.

Another asari commando vaulted up on top of the crates they were using for cover, aiming her particle rifle down at them.

"Eat this!" Tali snarled as she stood up out of cover, shoving her shotgun into the commando's belly and pulling the trigger. The asari staggered back, blood and gore spilling out from a gaping hole through her torso.

"Frag out!" Kaidan warned before tossing a cobalt grenade into the fray, only for the powerful anti-mecha explosive to glow a faint blue, slow and then reverse course with a wave of Benezia's hand.

"No!" Liara called, throwing up both arms and halting the grenade in mid-air, but after a moment, it then continued inexorably floating back toward them.

Jane shifted and threw her own biotics in support of Liara's efforts, and Kaidan followed suit a moment later. Finally, the grenade halted... and detonated.

Ears ringing, Jane shook her head to clear it and quickly scanned her surroundings to reassess the situation. Had it reached its intended destination, the cobalt grenade would have mulched Benezia - matriarch or no, she didn't think **anyone's** barriers could stand up to that - while leaving the team unharmed. As it was, it left both sides reeling from the explosion.

Still, at least Benezia didn't escape unscathed. Her robes were a mess of burning tatters, which she discarded with a wave of her hand, revealing... Jane wasn't sure what to make of what the asari matriarch was wearing underneath. It was primarily a black bodysuit highlighted by glowing blue lines that traced her body and coalesced into a few larger nodules. It took Jane a moment to recognize the blue glow as eezo. The rest of the bodysuit was clearly no ordinary fabric either, as Benezia seemed supremely unconcerned with the flames that had moments ago engulfed her.

"Do you know what this is?" Benezia asked. "This is but a part of our answer to your Cyclones, human, the Apostle." She waved her hand negligently, throwing a powerful shockwave that scattered the meter-wide crates they had been using for cover. "It enhances biotics, giving a maiden the strength of a matriarch, and a matriarch," she held up a hand and clenched it into a fist, "the strength of ten."

The team scattered as the very floor beneath them, made from hardened alloys, tore free and curled up, nearly wrapping them within.

"You cannot win this battle," she declared, raising a hand. Behind her, pipes and beams tore free from the rafters above, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent them flying at lethal velocity.

Jane's eyes narrowed as she glared at Benezia. "To hell with this," she hissed as she went through another mnemonic.

"Jane, wait!" Liara warned, but she was too late, as the human biotic suddenly suddenly flew across the room like a miniature blue meteor...

...only to stop abruptly, Benezia's hand wrapped around her throat.

"You are a thousand years too young to defeat me, human," she sneered. Jane gurgled an unintelligible response, and Benezia pulled her closer. "I'm sorry," she said mockingly. "What did you say?"

"I said..." Jane whispered as she reached up and dropped something behind the matriarch, "'Screw you, bitch.'" Scrunching her legs up to her chest, she kicked off, breaking free from Benezia's grip and tucking into a roll as the grenade detonated at the matriarch's feet.

* * *

The woman nonchalantly made her way through Port Hanshan. She easily blended into the crowd of people as she headed for the docking bays, despite the rarity of her species on Noveria. Nothing to see here, move along. Just another office lady going about her business.

She allowed herself a sigh of relief as she slipped into the docking bay, the icy cold air biting into her face.

"Hi, there."

She froze mid-step, her back stiffening, then plastered an eager smile on her face as she turned. "Oh, my. Commander Shepard," she gushed. "I'd heard you were around, but I never thought I'd get the chance to actually meet you!"

Yes, it was definitely Shepard. The Spacy commander was leaning against the wall next the door, arms crossed, an easy smile on his face. "Color me impressed," he said.

This didn't look good.

"Impressed by what?" she asked innocently.

He straightened up and shrugged. "Well, see, once I realized Qui'in was being framed, I asked myself, 'Self, why would someone try to frame him with such flimsy evidence?' Then I realized it was to get a clear shot at the Synthetic Insights offices. You couldn't get in with either his security **or** Anoleis's goons crawling all over the place."

She was unable to suppress the wince.

"But not only did you frame Qui'in **juuust** enough to clear out his offices for a bit, but you **also** somehow managed to sabotage a volus freighter and force it to make a very suspicious stop here for emergency repairs. So, yeah, impressive."

She sighed, defeated. "So, how'd you find me?" she asked finally.

"A human tramp freighter making a stop **here?**" he pointed out. "This planet isn't exactly human-friendly."

Her eyes narrowed. "It's registered under a turian name."

"The registered owner's name might be turian, but 'Heavenly Mist' is not a turian name for a ship."

_Damn,_ she thought. _Keiji's never going to let me hear the end of this._ Her sentimentality had tripped her up again, just like with the roses. "So. You going to arrest me?"

"Haven't decided yet," he replied. "What exactly were you here to steal?"

"Not steal," she corrected, seizing the opening. "Rescue."

He leaned forward. "Now I'm intrigued."

* * *

Jane stared through the reinforced polycarbonate at the rachni queen held within. Let her go or kill her? Place her trust in a species that had spent the last few hours trying to kill her and her team or deliver the final blow to a species thought exterminated centuries ago?

She was a Hunter. More than that, she was human. This choice was no choice at all.

* * *

John and Jane stood ready to answer the Citadel Council's questions, but it was clear their focus was on John.

"This is highly irregular, Commander Shepard," Councilor Valern declared. "The Council named **you** Spectre, not Commander Hunter."

"A fact I am well aware of, Councilor," John replied.

"You miss the point," Councilor Sparatus said. "She does not have Spectre authority. Many of her actions on Noveria are clear violations of Citadel law, and as she was unsupervised, your Spectre status cannot shield her from the consequences."

"Representatives of the Noveria Development Corporation made it abundantly clear that Citadel laws don't apply on Noveria," John countered, his voice frosty. "She was, however, acting in accordance with Alliance regulations, standard rules of engagement, and first contact protocols. If the NDC has a problem with this, they can take it up with the Alliance. I trust Commander Hunter and fully support her decisions."

"Perhaps," Sparatus's mandibles twitched, then he gave Jane a sidelong glance. "You may trust her, but **I** still question her judgment. According to this report, after finding rachni on Noveria, she then released the queen. Do you two realize what you've done? How many generations until they overrun the galaxy?"

"Three," John offered cheekily. "No, wait. Four!"

"This is hardly a time for humor, Commander," Sparatus growled.

"If I may, Councilors?" Jane spoke up.

"Speak," Councilor Tevos said. "This is not a trial."

John snorted. It sure felt like one.

"I will not commit genocide, Councilors," Jane declared, meeting each of the councilors' gazes without flinching, practically daring them to argue. "It would be a betrayal of everything the Alliance has ever stood for, a human tradition over a hundred years old, and my own family's legacy.

"I won't let fear compromise who I am."

* * *

With the debrief over, John looked at Jane. "So, what was that gear you were hauling in?"

"Something new for Liara," she answered, "once she gets over what happened. Until then, it's something for our resident spook to play with. Some kind of advanced asari prototype armor." She paused. "You probably should have mentioned it to the Council."

"Mention what?" he said. "I've not seen this armor, and I have no idea where you got it."

She snorted. "So, what's next?"

"Don't know," he admitted. "The Mu relay could link to dozens of systems. For now, we'll be making another resupply stop on Terra Nova. We burned through a lot of ordnance clearing out the geth from the Armstrong Nebula, and I want to be ready the moment we get a lead on Saren."

"I see," she said, nodding in agreement with the plan, and the two old friends lapsed into a companionable silence. After a few minutes, she broke it. "You should talk to her."

"Who?"

"Liara," she clarified. "She just lost her mother."

"You've always been better with that kind of thing than I am, Jane. You know that."

"It'll mean more coming from you," she countered, "and besides, I'm the one who killed her. I'm not the right person for this."

He grunted, wordlessly acknowledging her point.

"Don't worry," she added as she started to walk off. "I'll keep Tali busy so you two won't be interrupted."

* * *

"If you are here to talk about Benezia's death, you need not bother," Liara said, pre-empting John as he ducked into the lab behind medical where she had holed up. "She brought it upon herself."

"Don't pretend it doesn't bother you," he said, crossing his arms skeptically. "She was your mother." _And,_ he added silently, _from Jane's report, she was as much a victim as any of us._

"She was... but she was not," the asari archaeologist hedged, looking away. "I prefer to remember Benezia as she used to be, before she was corrupted by Sovereign's power."

John mentally scrambled for something to say, finally settling on, "The best of your mother lives on in you," as he reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Her determination, her intelligence, her strength."

"That is kind of you to say," Liara said, meeting his gaze with a shy smile on her face as she placed a hand on his. "I appreciate your concern, but I am fine." She raised her head and looked him in the eye. "Benezia chose her path, just as I have chosen mine. I am with you until the end, Shepard."

John floundered and let his hand drop. He could tell she wasn't really confronting her grief, but he had no idea how to call her out on it without hurting her.

"Liara..." he trailed off, unsure what to say.

She squeezed her eyes shut. "How did it feel, Shepard?" she asked quietly. "When your family died on Mindoir? How did you feel? Did you grieve, or were you angry?"

John winced and looked away, pondering how to answer that. He decided on honesty. "I was just a kid, Liara. Sixteen. Yeah, I was pissed. Until the funeral. After that, I just... felt empty. If it hadn't been for the Alliance and Captain Anderson... I don't know what I would have done."

"And just what do you think I'm going to do?" she asked gently.

"I don't know," he admitted, looking back at her. "I guess I just want you to know, you're part of my crew. Whatever happens, I'm here."

"Thank you, Shepard," she said, reaching forward and taking his hands in hers. "That means a lot."

* * *

**Earth Intelligence Agency**  
**Top Secret  
Code** **Word Access Only**

_Subject: Apostle Biotic Amplifying Combat Armor_  
_To: m (-at-) eia . gov_  
_From: d . belmont1 (-at-) eia . gov_

I can now confirm the existence of the Apostle. Attached is the data from the scans, but in summary, the Apostle consists of two layers. The inner layer is a bodysuit made of a material that can absorb tremendous amounts of heat, blunting the effects of lasers and plasma and incendiary weapons. This layer is also interwoven with eezo tracings and nodes, amplifying the wearer's biotic abilities exponentially. The outer layer consists of sectional hard armor segments lightened by mass effect fields. Preliminary analysis of the hard armor suggests it is made of carbon nanotube sheets woven with some form of diamond and then compressed, likely with mass effect fields. There are also signs that the outer layer is designed to interact with its wearer's biotics in some manner, but the specifics will require more analysis.

* * *

**Earth Intelligence Agency**  
**Top Secret**  
**Code Word Access Only**

_Subject: Asari Particle Rifle_  
_To: m (-at-) eia . gov_  
_From: d . belmont1 (-at-) eia . gov_

Per LtCmdr Hunter's report (attached), we have confirmation that Saren Arterius has access to particle beam weapons of unknown origins, likely developed by the Asari Republics, given the aesthetics of the weapon's design. Despite the inherent similarities, the asari particle rifle does not appear to be based on Alliance designs. The asari particle rifle incorporates mass effect technology from the ground up, using mass effect fields instead of electromagnetics to accelerate the particles. Additionally, the particle rifle operates on a different frequency from Alliance particle beam weapons - one more suited to ablating armor rather than piercing it - and fires a continuous beam instead of pulse beams. The continuous beam appears to be necessary due to the power generator, which takes several seconds to cycle up to full power each time the weapon is engaged. Recommend priority tasking toward identifying the origin of this technology.

* * *

**Codex: D-30 Cobalt Grenade**

Dating back to the Second Robotech War, the D-30 cobalt grenade is a versatile and powerful hand grenade used for both anti-personnel and light anti-armor duties. Its design is much like its larger cousin, the D-40 cobalt limpet mine, which is used for combat demolitions. In addition to an advanced high explosive charge, the cobalt grenade contains pressurized, powdered metal cobalt, which is pulverized on detonation and flash sublimates to plasma. The plasma rapidly expands, creating a powerful but localized concussion wave in addition to the heat of the plasma. As a grenade, the D-30 is optimized for throwing, and despite its power, it has an atypically small casualty radius, making it an effective offensive grenade and a practical - if not recommended - last ditch weapon against mecha.


	22. Chapter 22

Title: Protoculture Effect (22/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.

Spoilers: Just about anything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.

Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.

* * *

"So, Senior Chief," John asked, "think you can do it?"

Alice shot her commanding officer the evil eye, then relented and nodded. "Well, the specs are pretty flexible. Cyclones aren't exactly the stealthiest things around, but adapting this to your Typhoon shouldn't be that hard."

"Excellent. What kind of downtime are we looking at?"

"Gimme a week to figure out how to dampen the sound of your footsteps to go with it, and maybe another week or two to actually get it done," she offered with a shrug. "I'll know more once I get into the guts of it. Where'd you find this thing anyway?"

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies," he said. "It's just something I happened to... pick up on Noveria."

* * *

Jane glared at the display as the automated distress call repeated itself again. Naturally, she had the conn when this cropped up. "Joker," she said, "bring us around, low and slow. I want a full sensor sweep."

"You got it, Commander."

The asteroid was designated X57. Terra Nova's colonial council had decided to reposition it and mine it out to form a new orbital port facility, but between the distress call and the fact that the cheap fusion torches being used to reposition it were on full burn, something was wrong. She should have tried hailing the asteroid facility, but something tickled the back of her neck and held her back.

"We've just lost contact with Terra Nova, Commander."

Jane nodded in silent acknowledgement. This close to the metal-rich asteroid, long-range comms were bound to get fuzzy.

"Commander," Negulesco called, "picking up something on the magnetic resonance scanners. They don't match any known profiles..." she shook her head, "but that could be interference from the asteroid."

* * *

"What the hell's a turian frigate doing here?" Trask muttered. There was certainly no mistaking the dagger-like silhouette for any other species' design. He snorted. That didn't matter. It was doing a low and slow flyby, and while the asteroid's gravity was pretty low, it was enough that any ship that size would have to have diverted power away from its kinetic barriers to stay aloft at that speed and altitude.

He smiled.

_Easy meat,_ he thought as he lined up his shot. The Karrn was not an elegant machine. It was a squat, blocky-looking box on a pair of stumpy, reverse-articulated legs, but it packed heavy kinetic barriers and armor and plenty of firepower.

The targeting computer's beeping sped up, then morphed into the steady tone of a solid lock, and he fired. An Insatha surface-to-air missile blazed overhead from the launcher nestled behind Trask's cockpit. In the muffled solitude of the asteroid's thin atmosphere, it seemed to float lazily toward the frigate above.

"All units, hold fire!" Charn's voice came over the comm. "That's a human ship!"

"What?" Trask sputtered, looking down at his comm panel. "Too late!"

This was bad. This was very, very bad. Like most smaller ships, turian frigates relied primarily on their kinetic barriers for defense, and a single missile of sufficient power - and the Insatha certainly had the power - could bring one down if it didn't have to contend with kinetic barriers, but with pinpoint barriers, a human ship was a different beast entirely.

"Damn it!" Charn cursed. "All units, open fire! Take that frigate out!"

* * *

Joker hauled the flight yoke back, pulling the Normandy up into a sharp climb, then tapped it to the side, giving the ship a bit of spin. His left hand brushed over the lateral thruster controls, adding a bit of lateral drift as the Normandy corkscrewed away from the asteroid's surface, evading most of the anti-aircraft fire.

Jane calmly clicked on her personal comm.

"Hunter to Shepard. We have a situation here."

* * *

"Terra Nova's invested a great deal of resources into relocating X57," Shepard said. "Moreover, there are civilians down there, and we're the best qualified to investigate and get them out."

There were actually quite a few resources available in the Asgard system. The local patrol flotilla carried a significant Marine detachment, and then there was a full Army battalion stationed at Discovery Army Base, as well as a Marine security company at New Forbes Aerospace Base. Still, despite all these military assets - along with Terra Nova's own law enforcement and Colonial Defense Militia - Shepard and his team remained the best equipped to handle a covert insertion, recon, and possible hostage rescue in low gravity.

None of which explained to SIU Lieutenant De'linda Kilika why **she** was here. There were no indications that there were geth on X57, nor were any batarian interests at stake. Certainly, her skills would be useful on this mission, but Shepard seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't technically under his command. She briefly considered objecting or simply walking out of the conference room where he was giving his briefing, but decided against it... in the interest of diplomacy.

"Gunny, how's Tali's progress on Cyclone ops?"

"Passed her quals, sir."

"Good," he said with a curt nod. "We'll be hot-dropping in with two teams. Wrex, Garrus, Kilika, you're with me and Jacob on Team Rescue. We'll go in with the Mako, find the hostages, get them out. Ash, Rick, Tali, you're with Kaidan on Team Torch, and you'll be relying on your Cyclones. Shut down those fusion torches. Both teams will target the SAMs as opportunities arise."

* * *

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya's pulse pounded. This would be her first mission with a Cyclone, and it was simultaneously exhilirating and terrifying. On one hand, she was wearing more advanced mechatronics than anything she had ever seen before; although the Alliance was friendly with the Migrant Fleet, they still kept their military-grade hardware top secret, and even now, she wasn't permitted to look "under the hood," so to speak. Still, having that kind of technology - that kind of **power** - at her disposal was more than a little intoxicating. On the other hand, she was about to go into combat against an unknown foe while relying on an advanced piece of hardware she had only previously used in a controlled environment before.

That, and in the tight confines of the ship, she hadn't really had much chance to practice riding the Cyclone in hovercycle mode.

"Umm, Gunnery Sergeant Williams?" she murmured. They were in the Normandy's loading bay, all decked out in full Cyclone armor.

"Yes, Tali?" Ashley half-turned and looked over her shoulder back at her.

"What's a 'hot drop'?"

Tali could see her eyes widen through her semi-transparent visor. "Shit."

"Gunnery Sergeant?"

"Well," Ashley said, "basically, the Normandy's going to go in, low and fast, and open the bay doors, and then... we jump."

"'Jump'?" she repeated, certain she had misheard.

"Yeah."

"Out of the Normandy?" Surely, she had to have misunderstood...

"Yeah."

"Oh, keelah..." she moaned. This was not going to be fun.

* * *

Ashley winced as Tali shrieked the entire way down, all the way up until the point their thrusters automatically flared upon sensing the ground below to soften their fall.

She turned to the quarian as soon as her boots touched the ground. "Tali, are you all right?"

"Keelah..." was the subdued response. Tali looked up, eyes bright and wide. "That was fun! Can we go again?"

This had to be some sort of karmic punishment, Ashley decided. What she could have done to deserve it, though, in this life or a past one, eluded her.

"Okay, people," Kaidan said, "I've set a nav point for the nearest fusion torch. Let's get to it."

* * *

Jacob gunned the Mako's engine and made a beeline for the main complex. In the commander's seat, John monitored the sensors. The high metal content of the asteroid caused interference which limited the range of what they could pick up, but there was definitely something hinky going on.

"Hold up, Taylor," he ordered. "I'm picking up something on that ridge. Garrus, track right, let's see if we can get a better look on the gun cam."

"You got it, Commander," the turian in the gunnery seat acknowledged, and the gleaming barrel of the Mako's 155mm particle cannon swung toward the right. His mandibles flared. "Uh, Commander, is that what I think it is?"

"That's a destroid."

And it was, but it was no destroid of Alliance make. It was a stumpy-looking machine, closer to the cheap industrial cargo lifters used in less prosperous Alliance colonies than a real combat mecha. Despite this, it was clearly heavily armed.

"Taylor, go evasive!"

Jacob hit the accelerator and fired the Mako's thrusters, catapulting them up into the air a hair too late. The hostile destroid's weapon arms glowed, and coruscating beams of energy lanced out and struck the Mako's underside before it landed hull down behind a ridge.

"Damage report!" John barked.

"The pinpoints took the hit," Jacob said, "but they're pretty much drained. Those must have been lasers; the kinetics didn't even twitch."

The problem with miniaturizing the pinpoint barrier system enough to fit it into something as small as the Mako was a trade-off in power. Either they were too weak to offer any real protection, or they collapsed after absorbing just a few shots. Still, the lasers had to have been quite powerful to drain the pinpoint barriers with only two shots, something more suited to starships or fixed emplacements than mecha.

"Garrus?"

"Tracking, Commander. Firing."

Hyperaccelerated subatomic particles streamed out in a 155mm wide beam toward the hostile destroid. Maneuvering rockets flared, hurling the destroid to the side and out of the line of fire, and it returned fire with the five-barreled mass accelerator cannon mounted in its left torso, the rounds carving divots out of the ridge and showering them with metallic dirt. From its chin-mounted ball turret, the destroid fired a canister between them, which began billowing smoke.

Garrus didn't need orders. The green-tinted light-amplified feed from the gun camera was replaced by the bluish tones of the turret's FLIR sensor, populated by a harsh orange-red cloud.

"Thermal smoke, Commander," he said, shaking his head.

"Taylor, get us moving!"

Jacob floored the accelerator, and the Mako lurched forward, narrowly evading the indirect fire that landed on their previous position. The turret traversed in a full revolution, seeking out the enemy mecha. Garrus spotted the angular hull of the destroid peeking through the smoke, and the particle cannon spat a short blast of subatomic death, temporarily blinding the pilot as it cut through its shields and struck the bubble cockpit.

In the passenger compartment, Kilika glared silently at the video feed patched into her helmet mounted display. This was **impossible**. She **knew** that silhouette. She discreetly ejected the ammo block from her sniper rifle and quickly slid a different ammo block in its place.

"Get the door," she said, her voice dropping into the low, gutteral growl distinctive of her species.

A beady krogan eye regarded her for a moment, then Wrex nodded, hefting his M-300 Claymore and reaching over to the rear hatch...

* * *

Trask hissed in frustration as he stomped after the Mako. The Karrn was a clumsy machine compared to its inspiration, and on the relatively level ground, he was having trouble keeping up with his prey.

Suddenly, the Alliance IFV's rear hatch popped open, and two figures burst out. The krogan's massive shotgun thumped faintly in the thin atmosphere, barely adding a few scratches to the already damaged transparent canopy... until the high explosive rounds detonated. Trask cursed in annoyance as cracks spider-webbed across his field of view.

Below, Kilika raised her sniper rifle and fired. The specialized ammo block was derived from one of the Hegemony's greatest military assets. A small electromagnetic field generator built into all recent batarian weapons destabilized the ammo in the firing chamber into a fluid state.

The molten jet of metal punched through Trask's canopy and skull before he saw it coming.

* * *

Kaidan ducked behind an outcropping as an 88mm shell slammed into it.

"Say again, Rescue Actual?"

"-ostiles have-...-roid support, unknow-...-ble Mongoose var-...!" Shepard's voice came over his helmet comm. The high metal content in the asteroid was affecting their radio transmissions as much as it affected their sensors.

Kaidan peeked over at the destroid that was pounding their position.

"You don't say," he muttered.

* * *

**Codex: Colonial Defense Militia**

After the losses sustained during the Second, Third, and Fourth Robotech Wars, the United Earth Defense Force found itself stretched thin defending the dozens of colony worlds seeded by the Pioneer Mission. With significant portions of former Haydonite territory left to secure, it was clear that the UEDF lacked the manpower to both ensure that the Haydonite threat was indeed gone and provide for the defense of Earth and its colonies. A number of ideas were proposed and rejected, ranging from a rapid response nodal defense plan to mass production of a series of unmanned orbital defense platforms to the reactivation of the zentraedi cloning facilities captured after the First Robotech War.

The final solution came in the form of the Colonial Defense Militias. Protocols were drawn up, and to this day, military advisors from the UEDF are assigned to train volunteers from the various colonies to serve in the CDMs on a part-time and emergency basis. Unlike the UEDF, CDM forces are permanently stationed in their home colonies and enjoy a great deal of autonomy from the United Earth Alliance, as they are funded by and answer to their individual colonial authorities rather than the Ministry of Defense.

Although the CDM training programs are uniformly excellent - as trainers are still provided by the UEDF - their equipment varies widely, depending on the funding provided by their colonial governments. Over the last fifty years, with the UEDF having fully recovered from the Robotech Wars and stationing Army and Marine garrisons on nearly all colonies, most colonial governments have cut funding for their CDMs, some abolishing them in all but name, and few CDMs can afford to match the top of the line mecha and equipment fielded by the UEDF. Today, most CDMs serve more as auxiliaries to Army and Marine garrisons rather than as independent fighting forces.

* * *

**Codex: Mk 9 "Mongoose" Assault Walker**

The Mk 9 assault walker - Alliance reporting name "Mongoose" - is a turian destroid developed after the Relay War. The Mongoose exemplifies turian pragmatism; rather than making it in their own image, turian engineers designed it more with an eye for practicality: a squat, blocky design with reverse-articulated legs. This has its advantages, including a lower center of gravity and smaller target profile. Though it lacks the versatility and overall agility of an Alliance battloid, the Mongoose makes up for it with modular systems and a large element zero core.

The Mongoose's entire torso is capable of full 360-degree rotation, and the pilot operates it from a heavily armored compartment buried within it, relying on external cameras and monitors. Its primary armament is a pair of modular weapon arms, capable of carrying a variety of cannons and missile launchers, though it also houses a retractable armored missile rack on top. In addition to kinetic barriers, the Mongoose uses its eezo core for mobility; unlike most mecha of its size, the Mongoose primarily navigates by skating along mass effect fields, typically only walking when in rougher terrain, and can make prodigious leaps, though it has not demonstrated sustained flight capability.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Sorry for the delays in the update. On the plus side, I have a new story set in the Protoculture Effect universe called Blue and Red: Stories From Shanxi. Check it out.


End file.
